


Dawn of a New Ninja

by Tired_Paisano



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, FTM Hatake Kakashi, Fuuinjutsu Master Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi is a Good Teacher, MTF Uzumaki Naruto, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:12:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 46,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21978637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tired_Paisano/pseuds/Tired_Paisano
Summary: The paths we choose are never set in stone, they are rather fluid, and any one decision can send ripples across the pool of time. But some, cause waves. Naruto, desperate to feel any kind of happiness in his life creates a persona, which accidentally causes a tsunami. Whoops.A tale of a MTF trans Naruto. Read as she takes the world by storm as Chizuru Ikeda, and stakes her claim as one of the legends of the ninja world.
Relationships: Aburame Shino/Inuzuka Kiba, Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino, Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Neji/Rock Lee, Nara Shikamaru/Temari
Comments: 26
Kudos: 136





	1. Building Blocks

The sun set over Konoha, the village seemed to slow as the light faded, what with her occupants retreating to their homes for dinner, and the majority of the shops closing for the day. As the last of the light started to fade, dark clouds rolled in from behind the Hokage Monument, and as night finally fell upon the village, so did a large downpour of rain. The last of the villagers who hadn't found shelter yet were scrambling to get to some, a flash of yellow amongst the rain that went unnoticed by most, was the young Uzumaki Naruto, who bolted toward his home.

"Stupid rain!" Naruto shouted, "I wasn’t even able to finish half of the ramen I wanted to!"

Anger evident on his face he sped further down the road, which was lit up from time to time by lightning that began flashing from the storm. Naruto's apartment was in sight, but just as the last roll of thunder finished, a flash of blue lit up the sky, and Naruto found himself tumbling across the empty streets, before he ultimately blacked out.

* * *

The blonde groggily sat up, and struggled to open his eyes, which, when opened, blurred the surroundings into an unrecognizable state. Blinking away the blur, the blonde eventually found himself sitting in an emergency room.

“What happened…” Naruto asked, massaging his head to ease the headache he was feeling.

“What indeed.” A voice to Naruto’s right chuckled out, causing the boy to jump and snap his gaze in the direction of its origin.

“Calm down Naruto, it’s just me.” The graveled voice assured. The carrier of said voice was an old man with a white goatee and tanned, leathery skin. The man wore a red and white hat with the kanji for fire in the center of it, as well as a red and white robe. Naruto recognized him as his grandfather figure, the sandaime hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

“Hokage-jiji! Why am I here? Did I get beat up hard enough to not remember again?” The boy questioned lightheartedly, to which the sandaime grimaced.

“Nothing like that Naruto,” He began, “In fact it was merely an accident that you came, you were struck by a bolt of lightning from that freak storm.”

“Oh.” Was all Naruto could say in reply.

“Enough of that though, how are you feeling?” The sandaime asked sincerely.

"Uh..." Naruto began slowly, "I'm not sure, I don't feel bad, but... I don't know, I feel a bit weird I guess." He finished with a shrug.

Hiruzen grunted humorously at the blonde's words.

"I'd probably feel weird too if I was struck by lighting." He joked lightheartedly, "From the looks of it though you look as if you weren't struck in the first place, I think the doctors would release you if they were here right now, so I'd just say you're free to go home." Hiruzen then reached into his robe and pulled out a small envelope and passed it to Naruto. "Here, you can have your allowance a little early this time, just don't go spending it all on ramen you hear me." With that he got up from his seat and started for the door. "Take care Naruto." Were his parting words.

The blonde sat in silence for a minute as he listened to the Hokage's footsteps recede down the hallway. Naruto then carefully got to his feet and grabbed his things, before heading out. He began walking out of the room he was staying in, and made to leave the hospital, ignoring all the glares that were thrown his way.

The blonde left the hospital out into the night while deep in thought, the storm had gone, when he started heading down the road to where his apartment was, he decided to run the rest of the way there. When the boy made it to his apartment, he felt slightly winded, and recovered in no time at all. After entering his home, and closing the door, he took in his surroundings. The apartment was rather small and basic, it had a kitchen, a dining room, and a fridge that sat directly across from the hallway. The boy made for the hallway, and halfway through, passed the bathroom, before ending up at his bedroom.

The bedroom was basic, and had little in the sense of decorations, a calendar here, a poster there, the most prominent theme of the room was the state it was in, garbage littered the floor, in such a way as that it was nearly impossible to see the ground. Naruto used to be fine with this, it was his, and no-one had ever told him to clean it, however, now, he saw it as appalling as most others would.

“Ugh…” Naruto groaned to himself, “I’m gonna have to clean up tomorrow.” Shaking his head, the blonde laid down and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Naruto made his into his ninja academy class the next day, and quickly found a vacant seat near one of his classmates, Uchiha Sasuke. The boy didn’t take notice to Naruto, and elected to instead glare at the window to his left. Naruto glanced around the room and noticed that of the notable names of his classmates, only a few were there. He noticed that himself, Sasuke, Nara Shikamaru, Aburame Shino, Hyuga Hinata, and a just few civilian-born children were the only ones in class at the moment. Shikamaru was napping in his seat, Shino was looking intently at a fly that was buzzing not far from him, and Hinata was organizing her school supplies near the back of the class. _Weird… Where’s everyone else?_ The blonde silently questioned, then looked at the clock at the front of the room. _Oh. I’m early. Wait… WHAT THE HELL? I’M EARLY?_ He mentally screamed. _Damn. I’d follow Shikamaru’s example but I’m actually wide awake…_ He scratched at his head in irritation. _I’m not only early but I also chose to sit next to ‘ten-mile-stick-up-his-ass’ ‘personality-so-bland-a-brick-wall’s-more-interesting’ blue teme himself._ He sighed dejectedly and slouched further into his seat.

“Quit squirming dobe, you’re being rather distracting.” Sasuke ordered, which caused Naruto to snarl.

“And what am I distracting you from? It sure as hell isn’t class, and I’m sure there’s nothing interesting going on out there, or am I wrong teme?” Naruto argued.

Sasuke crossed his arms and looked out the window again, his only response was a huff of indignation. Naruto was about to gloat about his victory over ‘the blue teme’ when he heard the seat next to him move. The blonde looked to see who had sat down, and noticed it was Shikamaru.

“Why’d you get closer?” Naruto asked the lazy boy.

“Came to ask you why you’re here so early, raising my voice would have been too troublesome, and I also wanted to watch the clouds, it’s easier this close to the window.” Shikamaru responded.

“A lotta words for a lazy bastard.” Naruto joked, to which Shikamaru muttered a ‘troublesome’, “Don’t know why I’m here this early honestly, just ended up here I guess. I think the better question’s why a lazy ass like you is here so early.” Naruto deflected the boy’s question.

“Mom won’t get off my ass until I leave for school each day, so I’ve been coming in early to catch up on sleep away from home.” He sighed, “Troublesome woman.”

“Wouldn’t know what that’s like, I manage my own schedule, and if I’m late, I’m late, who cares.” Naruto added. “Speaking of my schedule, I need to work on it. I’m not coming in this early ever again… Damn it’s boring without everyone here… I should extend my training time as well…“ The blonde mumbled to himself.

“How much training do you even do dobe?” Sasuke asked, showing that he was tuning into the blonde’s conversation.

“Huh? Do you mean how much training I get done, or how long I train for?” Naruto asked.

“Why would I ask you how much you get done, I can tell it’s next-to-none just from your grades.” Sasuke berated.

“I train for 5 hours a day. I leave school, eat, train, eat, go home, and sleep. That’s my schedule. I think it got fucked up after I got struck by lightning last night…” Naruto thought aloud, “Eh, just gotta get back into the rhythm of things again.”

“So you’re telling me,” Shikamaru started, drawing the two other boy’s attention, “You train 5 times as much as me, probably 5 hours more than most girls in this class, maybe an hour more than Sasuke here does, and yet, you still suck ass at all things ninja.” Shikamaru concluded.

“Yeah. Wait a min-” Naruto started.

“How?” Shikamaru asked plainly.

“What?” Naruto questioned.

“How are you still shit? How do you train? What are you training with? What are you training on? How long do you spend on each thing?” The boy probed.

“Whoa slow down please! Holy shit, I thought I was going to have an aneurysm!” He paused for a second, “And I don’t even know what an aneurysm is!”

“Fine, I’ll start over.” Shikamaru began, “How are you still as bad as you are?”

“I don’t know. I try to train the way I think is best.” Naruto explained.

“Wait, do you mean that you aren’t learning from anyone, or anything, just doing what you think is best?” Shikamaru asked.

“Yeah kinda, not like I have anyone to train me, it's not like I have any clan members to teach me either.” Naruto answered.

"Well are you at least using the school-issued scrolls to train?" Shikamaru questioned.

"The what?" Naruto asked.

"The scrolls that we were given at the beginning of the year? The academy taijutsu,  Henge no Jutsu  ,  Bunshin no Jutsu , any of those ring a bell?" Shikamaru explained further when he realized Naruto still didn't seem to get it.

"Oh you mean the graduation Jutsu? We still have two years until those are important anyways." Naruto said while waving his hand in a nonchalant manner.

"Yes, but what about the taijutsu? From what I've seen during spars, you still suck ass at fighting." Shikamaru asked.

"Mizuki's been teaching me an advanced taijutsu instead." Naruto explained.

"If what you've been using is considered advanced then I'm going to stick with the academy style for the rest of my life." Shikamaru joked, "Are you certain he's teaching you an advanced style?"

"Told me so himself." Naruto started, "He said that 'the academy style is easily defeated in real combat', and that 'a real ninja needs to be able to think on their feet'."

"Yes a real ninja needs to be able to think on their feet but they need a solid taijutsu style before they can think about real combat, not the glorified street brawling style you use." Shikamaru sighed, "Troublesome, you should train with those scrolls, and then I'd recommend you hit up the Konoha ninja library when you get them down, if you're as serious about being Hokage as you say you are." The lazy boy finished.

"Yeah I should do that, thanks Shikamaru." Naruto conceded. "Do you think Iruka-sensei has those scrolls?"

"Did you lose yours?" Shikamaru asked.

"Lose them? I never got any of those scrolls." The blonde explained.

"What? Mizuki-sensei handed them out at the beginning of the year." Shikamaru explained, then seemed to get a concentrated look on his face before sighing. "Troublesome."

"What?" Naruto asked.

"I'll just lend you mine since I've already got them down." Shikamaru offered.

"You already have them down? And you're not requesting to leave the academy early?" Naruto asked incredulously.

"I don't want to overachieve." Shikamaru stated plainly.

"Well then what do you want to do?" Naruto asked.

"I wanted to live a simple civilian life, get married, have a kid, maybe two, and die before my wife, but my mother wants me to become a ninja, so I'll do that, but as a ninja." Shikamaru explained.

"Huh. Weird." Naruto stated.

"Says 'Mr I-wanna-be-Hokage'." Shikamaru retorted.

"That's 'Mr I'm-going-to-be-Hokage' to you." Naruto replied, eliciting a troublesome out of the lazy boy.

"Whatever. Just swing by my place after class, and if I were you, I'd take your training into your own hands until you get your Jonin instructor. Don't listen so much to Mizuki-sensei, you're a smart kid." Shikamaru finished.

"Thanks." Naruto said.

After the two boys finished their conversation they heard a pair of rapid footsteps approaching the classroom. The footsteps halted at the door and it slammed open revealing Haruno Sakura, and Yamanaka Into shoulder to shoulder in their daily battle to arrive first to sit next to Sasuke. The two girls almost started arguing over who arrived first when they realized both of the seats next to their 'prize' were taken. Sakura started stomping over to demand that the two boys move when Iruka arrived.

"Take a seat everyone, and we'll get started." Iruka issued.

* * *

**Later that day**

Naruto walked onto training ground 7 with the scrolls Shikamaru gave him. He set his bag down, and began sifting through it, he reached for the Henge scroll first, and pulled it out.

"Alright, Henge no Jutsu. Let's see, it says here that I have to wrap chakra around myself and transmit an image onto the chakra by thinking of a person, or thing in its entirety." Naruto read, and then formed the hand seal required, " Henge no Jutsu !"

The blonde was engulfed in a plume of smoke, and looked around for a moment after.

"Did it work?" He asked, then walked toward the pond that was on the training ground to look at his reflection.

When he arrived at the pond and looked into it, he saw a rough replica of the Hokage staring back at him, and couldn't help but burst out laughing. When he got ahold of himself, he tried to get a better looking Henge working, and attempted it four more times before getting a near identical copy of the Hokage.

"Yatta!" The NaruHokage shouted while jumping and pumping his fist into the air. "Alright what's next?" The blonde asked after cancelling his Henge.

Naruto looked through the scrolls and saw the other Jutsu scroll, the one for the  Bunshin no Jutsu , and pulled it out.

"How does this one work?" The boy asked while looking at the scroll, after reading the instructions, he formed the ram seal, and with a poof off to his side, a perfect copy of himself stood.

"Hell yeah!" The blonde yelled while grabbing his clone and spinning around, embracing it in a hug. "This is so awesome! Who knew Jutsu would be this easy to learn?" The blonde yelled, then released a bout of excited laughter.

"Naruto!" A familiar shout came from behind him, and the boy turned to see Choji and Shikamaru heading towards him.

"Oi! Choji! Shikamaru! I got the Jutsu down see!" The boy cupped his hands around his mouth to shout, then pointed toward the clone to his left.

"Yeah we saw." Shikamaru stated.

"Good job Naruto! That was a neat trick with the spinning around." Choji remarked.

"Huh? What trick?" Naruto asked.

"About that, I accidentally gave you the wrong scroll, and my mom yelled at me until I came to give you the right one, what you learned was the  Kage Bunshin no Jutsu , or in other words, a solid clone." Shikamaru explained. "How are you feeling by the way?"

"Oh, I'm feeling fine, wait so do I need to learn the actual Bunshin no Jutsu as well?" Naruto asked.

"No, the Kage Bunshin is much more useful, you should read the scroll all the way through to know every benefit." The shadow user answered.

"Alright," Naruto began, while dispelling his clone, "Huh."

"What's wrong?" Choji asked.

"Oh nothing, I forgot what I was gonna say."

"Maybe that's because you were pumped full of the information your clone took in." Shikamaru suggested.

"What!? The Kage Bunshin is like another pair of eyes!?" Naruto exclaimed.

"Kinda." Shikamaru gave, "It's more like another brain, like…" Shikamaru paused, looking for the right words.

"It allows you to learn Jutsu quicker, by transmitting muscle memory, chakra memory, and all memories in general, with feelings from all five senses, or six if you're a sensornin." The black haired boy explained. "Essentially it's the ultimate tool, good for training, scouting, overwhelming, and overall fighting. How are your chakra reserves, do they feel drained?" Shikamaru furthered.

"I don't think so, why?" Naruto asked.

"This is a Jonin level Jutsu, you should at least notice a difference in your chakra levels, make another one, and tell me how you feel." Shikamaru said.

Naruto complied and made another clone.

"Nothing." The blonde said.

"Another." Shikamaru ordered.

The two went back and forward until over a hundred Narutos crowded the field, Choji was eating a bag of chips rapidly in fascination of the two.

"Wait, I think I feel a bit of chakra missing. I don't know though, is it supposed to feel like when you first wake up? Like… Uh… What's the word?" Naruto explained.

"Groggy?" Shikamaru asked, to which Naruto nodded. "Yeah, that's how it's supposed to feel, except for with the amount of clones you made, it would kill anyone with lower than Kage level reserves, maybe even double Kage level, I don’t know."

"Really? That's awesome!" Naruto exclaimed.

“I think it’s more troublesome than awesome.” Shikamaru sighed, before laying on the ground to watch the clouds.

“Why would you think that?” Naruto asked, while him and Choji laid down next to the lazy boy.

“Eh? Oh, I think it’s just too much of a hassle to experience something twice, I already have to deal with your day-to-day idiocy once, I _really_ don’t want to see more of that.” Shikamaru teased.

“OI!” Naruto shouted in mock anger.

“Now that I think about it, I’d agree with Shika on this one. Want a chip?” Choji piped up.

Shikamaru and Choji ate a few chips while Naruto complained about ‘not getting enough respect for being their future Hokage’ for a few minutes, before he ultimately settled down and munched away with the two boys while cloud watching.

* * *

**3 Weeks Later**

Naruto entered Iruka’s classroom and took his usual seat next to Sasuke, while he waited for his lazy, yet more talkative than Sasuke, friend to arrive, he pulled out a book he checked out from the Konoha Ninja Library at said lazy friend’s suggestion. This book, ‘Basics of Chakra Control’, was one of the many books Shikamaru wrote down on a list for Naruto to check out, all of which built upon eachother to build a solid base for Naruto to work off of, and ‘learn cool jutsu with’ afterwards. The classroom’s door slid open just as Naruto finished the chapter he was on, so the blonde looked up from his book to see Shikamaru walking in.

“Yo Shika!” Naruto called out.

“Yo.” Shikamaru responded, while giving a weak wave.

“You wanna hang out over break?” Naruto asked. “You, me, and Choji can watch clouds, or you two can watch me train, it’ll be fun!”

“Sorry Naruto, neither Choji nor I can hang out.” Shikamaru said, while taking his seat next to Naruto.

“Eh? Why not?” Naruto asked dejectedly.

“Trust me, I wanna hang out with the two of you but our fathers lost a bet to Ino’s dad, and are gonna have to train us in our clan techniques a year early.” Shikamaru explained.

“What was the bet?” Naruto asked.

“Whoever’s kid makes it the highest in the class doesn’t have to pay for drinks for 10 nights out, and the losers have to amp up their kids’ training to catch up.” Shikamaru answered.

“Huh. Is that really a punishment? I mean, you guys will be getting stronger and all.” Naruto said.

“It’s troublesome is what it is, I know Ino’s dad was the one who made the bet, and I know Choji’s dad and my dad were just hoping that we would brute strength our way to the top, or outwit everyone else respectively.” Shikamaru began, “But it wasn’t enough, Ino’s dad always had more drive than the other two, and trained Ino on her clan techniques early just because.” The lazy boy finished.

“Damn. Well, at least we’ll see eachother once classes start again after the break.” Naruto said.

“Yeah. You want me to recommend you more books to read over break or do you think you can be independent enough to get your own?” Shikamaru asked teasingly.

“Oi!” Naruto joked.

The boys shared a laugh and even Sasuke gave a small smirk at the two boys’ antics.

“Okay, but seriously,” Naruto began while his laughter subsided, “I could actually go for a list of higher level books.”

“No problem, at least it’ll give me something useful to do while class is going.” Shikamaru stated.

The classroom doors once again slid open, and Iruka walked inside. The teacher walked up to his desk and waited for the talking to start to quiet down before clearing his throat.

“Alright everyone, I know break’s about to start, but I request that you please take a seat.” 

* * *

Naruto made his way back to his apartment, which would take him right next to the bookstore.

“Glad I can get the books I need for free at the library and don’t need to spend all my money on books like everyone else does.” Naruto mumbled to himself while walking.

As he neared the bookstore a couple of older, bland-looking men walked out of the shop with a few bags. He took note of them, but was ready to just ignore them, when suddenly the puffed into smoke, and in the place of the two older men were two kids, younger than Naruto.

“I told you henging would allow us to get the new Icha Icha books!” One of the boys said.

“I don’t know why I doubted you, what else do you think we could get while henged?” The other asked, as Naruto walked past them.

“Well when my father usually drinks sake, and I ask him if I could get some, he says ‘this is an adult drink’ or ‘you’ll get some when you’re older’ so I think we should try that!” The first boy exclaimed, before the two took off in the opposite direction Naruto was heading.

Naruto meanwhile was deep in thought on what he saw happen in front of him. _If I use a henge I can get stuff I usually don’t…_ The blonde thought, while a few images of him getting kicked out of shops popped up in his mind. _Wait! I CAN GET HEALTHY FRUIT, AND NON-EXPIRED MILK THAT WAY!_ The boy shouted in his head, before taking off at a quicker pace toward home. _Oh man, I won’t be able to get much because of_ **_taxes_ ** _but I will be able to get a good amount._ He finalized silently, while opening up his apartment door.

“I’m home!” He called out to his plants, before rushing to prepare his quick after school snack of ramen. When he finished making his ramen, he set it down on the dining room table to cool, and sat in front of it, before thinking aloud. “Now what sorta henge should I use?”

Naruto sat in silent contemplation as a few dozen thoughts came and went, such as using existing people, or variant versions of said people. He eventually started picking at his ramen, when he resigned himself to crafting a new persona that was nothing like anyone he’d ever seen. _If I remember correct, the best disguises are the ones that make you unique, not too unique to the point of suspicion, and that you should create a look that is not like anyone within the mission’s boundary, or something like that._ Naruto finished his ramen, and grabbed the last photo he had taken, which was his student identification card, and placed it next to the mirror in the bathroom. He looked into the mirror and began finalizing the design of his henge.

“There are quite a few people with white hair around Konoha, and I don’t think their very old, so maybe I can use that.” Naruto thought aloud, “Hmm… Maybe I should change my eye color also… Nobody else has eyes **this** blue…” He said while observing himself closely in the mirror. “Maybe green… Yeah. That’s nothing like my eyes now… Hmm… But what style should my hair be? Long? Short? Ooh! If I do it not too short but long enough I can further hide the fact that it’s me by henging into a girl! One of those books said something about opposites mislead or something like that.” The blonde concluded aloud, before once more falling silent as he worked out the final details of the henge.

“Yosh!” He exclaimed, in a manner he once heard while walking past some training grounds a while back. “I think I’ve got the perfect disguise! Henge no Jutsu!” He called out.

When Naruto looked back at the mirror, he saw that the person standing there wasn’t him, but an emerald green eyed girl, with wavy, shoulder length, white hair, and no whisker marks like he had. Her face was softer, and, overall, much more feminine. She looked back and forward between the mirror and the ID card, and a feeling of success began bubbling up as she happily began dancing around the bathroom.

“Yatta!” She called out in a feminine form of Naruto’s voice. “Eh.” She said, and stopped dancing after hearing the butchered feminine voice she tried making.

“Hello, hello, hello.” She began as a way to set her tone of voice.

It took her another forty-five minutes before she completely fell into the voice.

“Hell yeah!” She called out in a voice unique to her. “Now I just have to create a convincing story as to why nobody’s ever seen me before…” She grabbed the ID card and placed it on the dining room table. Before making her way to her bedroom.

She laid down and stared at the ceiling for a while lost in thought before she sat up and slapped the bottom of her fist against her other palm.

“I’ve got it! Okay,” She started, “my name is Chizuru Ikeda, my parents are merchants who are getting ready to retire, we’ve been to Konoha before, so I know my way around quite well, but we only just decided to move here. My parents are off doing one final route before they retire, and decided that having a place to come back to would be preferable, so they left me to find a place and set it up for us. I’m staying at a hotel that I don’t know the name of because I never checked, as they checked me in and all, and if I don’t find a place here we’ll probably move to a smaller town in Hi no Kuni.” Chizuru began reciting to herself.

After 10 minutes of pounding the cover story into her mind, she got to her feet, and made for the door. When she was about to unlock the door to head out, she paused. _Maybe I should henge back into myself before leaving, that way nobody knows I came from this apartment._ Chizuru mused, before releasing her henge.

Naruto stepped outside and made his way to the marketplace, and only when he saw the first shops did he slip into an alleyway to henge back into Chizuru, before leaving out another alley exit. _Alright, time to shop!_

* * *

**Later that day**

Chizuru had already gone home to put her groceries away, before heading out again. Her shopping trip had cost her way less than she was expecting, so she decided to go out and do some leisure shopping for a change. She was heading toward a clothing shop she saw while grocery shopping earlier, before she got sidetracked by another store. _Yamanaka Flowers? Isn’t that Ino’s last name?_ Chizuru asked herself silently, before walking inside of the flower shop.

"Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers!" The cashier called out from behind her counter.

Chizuru nodded her head in greeting while looking at some of the flowers close by to her, before doing a double take at who the cashier was.

"Ino?" She asked, before mentally slapping herself for the slip.

"Eh? How do you know my name, I don't think I've ever seen you before." Ino asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Chizuru, I'm new in town and was told I'd probably like to visit this shop by a girl named Sakura..." Chizuru explained while rubbing the back of her neck, "She told me I'd probably see her friend Ino there, but didn't explain that you'd be a cashier..."

"Guess that makes sense, not many as young as me are seen running registers." Ino said. "Anyways, you said your name was Chizuru? It's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, I think I'll take a minute to look around." The white haired girl said, then turned back to the plants.

"Take as long as you need!" Ino said, slipping back into her customer service voice.

* * *

"Come again!" The cashier at the clothing shop called as Chizuru left.

"Phew!" Chizuru sighed out as she made her way down the street. _I wish I had picked out a new plant while at the Yamanaka's... At least then I could say the lying was worth it..._ She thought.

Chizuru continued down the street, heading toward her favorite ramen shop to get some post-shopping dinner, when a flash of pink caught her eye. She turned to the source and saw Sakura walking a little bit to her left. _She must be heading home after doing some training. Wait, she doesn't look all that tired. What kept her out so late?_ Chizuru thought. _I know how I can find out! I just have to get her attention._

Chizuru sped up her walking, and changed her direction a bit until she was walking slightly in front of Sakura. She watched the road closely for anything that could be used, and saw a bottle that looked like it had rolled out from an alleyway. Locking onto her target, and checking to see if Sakura was paying attention, she sped her walking up until she reached the bottle. Putting her foot down on it, she kicked it forwards with her heel, and feigned a slip backwards.

"Whoa!" Chizuru called out, while falling backwards into Sakura.

The two crashed into eachother and fell to the ground, Chizuru let out a groan to emulate pain, and looked behind her at Sakura.

"Oh! Are you alright?" She asked, while getting to her feet.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm alright, what about you?" Sakura asked, while trying to get up.

"I'm fine," Chizuru started while holding out her hand to pick up the pinkette, "I think I slipped on a bottle... Oh! I'm Chizuru by the way."

"Sakura." The pinkette offered her name.

"Your name fits you." Chizuru offered jokingly, while looking at the pinkette's hair.

"I get that a lot." Sakura said while rolling her eyes playfully, "I haven't seen you around before, are you new?"

"Hm? Oh yeah, I recently moved here, or at least we're planning on moving here." Chizuru explained.

"Where are you staying now? If you haven't moved into anywhere yet that is?" Sakura asked.

"Some hotel off that way." Chizuru said while pointing toward the part of town with the highest concentration of hotels.

"Makes sense, where are you heading now?" Sakura asked.

"I just finished shopping, so I was heading to a restaurant I heard some blonde kid yelling about." She explained.

"Must have been Naruto about Ichiraku's then..." Sakura deduced.

"Yeah that's the restaurant!" Chizuru exclaimed.

"Well I was just heading home for dinner myself, so I can't join you." Sakura said.

"Oh? What were you doing anyways?" Chizuru asked.

"Uh..." Sakura began, while a blush appeared on her cheeks, "Bird watching?"

"What kind of birds?" Chizuru asked.

"Ravens... and... Ducks?" Sakura explained.

"How was it?" Chizuru asked.

"It was good. Uh... What about you, where did you go shopping?" Sakura asked.

"Oh I don't remember, just some place to get some food, and another to get some clothes." Chizuru said, then remembered something, "I was hoping to get some flowers to grow but I couldn't find a shop."

"Oh I know of one, it's called Yamanaka Flowers, and I think you'd like it." Sakura gave.

"Thanks, I think I'll check it out before I go home." Chizuru gave, before looking at her destination. "Looks like this is goodbye. It was nice meeting you!"

"It was nice meeting you too. Bye!" Sakura called while walking away.

Chizuru watched her leave, before turning toward Ichiraku's and heading in.

"Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen!" Teuchi called.

"Thank you, I'll be a minute before I order." Chizuru said while putting her bags by her seat.

"Take your time." Teuchi said.

Chizuru looked at what was on the menu, and contemplated for a moment what to order. _I can't just order what Naruto does, or else I will have a tie between the disguise and Naruto... I've tried too hard to just throw it out over ramen... So maybe I should try something else... Like... Fried rice? Yeah that sounds good._

"Uh... I think I'll have an order of chicken fried rice!" Chizuru called out.

"Chicken fried rice coming up!" Teuchi called out.

* * *

**2 Weeks Later**

Chizuru made her way down the street, a smile on her face while she went. She had come to realize that when she smiled at people while being herself, she got way more smiles back than when she would go out as Naruto. It confused her to no end, but she made do and just went out less as Naruto. She would do her shopping and civilian-esque stuff as Chizuru and go to ninja places as Naruto, easy as that. Well except for training grounds, and sometimes the Ninja Library when she needed another book, and... Well she just started going out as Chizuru more than she thought she would, not that she had a problem with it, in fact, she looked forward to seeing Ino and Sakura, or having the ability to make conversation with random people whenever she felt like it. It was nice.

Chizuru walked into Yamanaka Flowers and greeted Ino's mother, who was at the register.

"Hello, is Ino here?" Chizuru asked.

"Hello Chizuru, no she just left with Sakura." Ino's mother said, "I'll tell her you were here when she gets back but I can't do much other than that."

"Alright thank you." Chizuru said politely, while turning to leave.

"You know, you've been a real help in getting Ino and Sakura to get back to being friends." Ino's mother said.

"I have?" Chizuru asked, "I thought they were friends already?"

"Oh, they used to be, but that was before they both got eyes for the same boy." Ino's mother sighed, "They went from being the best of friends to being 'rivals' at the flip of a coin, but that's in the past."

"I never knew." Chizuru said, "I guess I'll help all I can to mend their friendship!"

"Thank you, and have a nice day Chizuru." Ino's mother called.

* * *

Chizuru sat at her dining room table and looked around the room in contemplation.

"I should talk to Jiji..." She said. "I really don't want to go to the academy as Naruto everyday if I can help it, and I know with his help I can help it..."

She stared at the wall for a good minute, before sighing.

"I guess I should have an excuse to see him shouldn't I?" She said, then grabbed out a scroll and brush, and began writing.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen sat behind his desk in the Hokage's office with a stack of papers off to the side. _I need a distraction._ The old man thought, while rubbing his temples. He was about to pull out a little orange book from one of the drawers of his desk, when a knock sounded at the door. _Well I did ask for a distraction._

"Enter." He allowed.

One of the doors opened to reveal a short white-haired girl, who bowed before she walked in.

"Ah hello there." Hiruzen greeted while smiling widely. "And who might you be?"

"Hello Hokage-sama, my name is Chizuru Ikeda, I have a written request from my parents that I came here to deliver." Chizuru explained.

"Ah, let me see it then." The Hokage said, while extending his hand to grab the scroll.

"It's mostly about our future plans in Konoha, including my entering into the Ninja Academy, but I think there's something else in there that would interest you." Chizuru further explained while passing Hiruzen the scroll.

"I'm sure you'll make an excellent kunoichi." Hiruzen stated with another smile.

He looked down at the paper and learned in a single moment why he hadn't seen his surrogate grandson in the office recently.

"I didn't expect that the thing I would be interested in was personal?" The Hokage motioned for his ANBU to leave the room, much to their confusion, however they complied. Once the room was cleared, Hiruzen activated the office's privacy seals before continuing the conversation.

"Well Naruto, you have my attention. You've done a good job at hiding yourself, this is also really neat handwriting, you filled an entire page for this report, and yet it's legible." The Hokage complimented.

"Please Hokage-sama, consider this an ongoing mission as I requested in the report, you should only refer to me by my alter ego." Chizuru requested.

"Alright I will Chizuru." Hiruzen complied, _The things kids do to rationalize things, I have to give her props, she's seriously matured since the last time we spoke._

"As per your request, I will have you marked into next year's academy records accordingly, and I'll even compensate you for an ongoing A-rank infiltration mission alongside an early allowance.” The Hokage offered.

"Eh? Really Jiji? That's a **lot** of money." Chizuru questioned.

"Nonsense, if anything I'm underpaying you. An infiltration mission in a ninja village automatically classifies as an A-rank mission, allied or not. Add in the length of said mission, and how long it will continue still, and the bill is steadily climbing. I will give you a one off payment for this, even though this was a self assigned mission, just so that your cover story lines up." The Hokage stopped for a second to gauge Chizuru's reaction. "How else would you be able to afford a new place to house three? I also must commend you on the fluidity of your story, it's hard to poke holes into, and allows for twists and bends, in particular, the aspect you directly referenced in your report, with the disappearance of your parents, this would allow me the ability to compensate you with a second payment for the mission. You seem to have learned a lot since we last talked, have you finally gotten serious about becoming Hokage?" Hiruzen finished.

"Yes Hokage-sama." Chizuru stated.

"Good, I'll hold onto the hat for you for the time being, I just hope you'll be ready to take it when the time comes." Hiruzen offered with a smile, "Retirement sounds really good right about now."

"I take it I'm dismissed?" Chizuru asked.

"Of course, take care, and come see me more, I could use the distraction sometimes." Hiruzen chuckled.

"I'll try!" Chizuru called as she opened the door to leave.

Once the girl had left, Hiruzen took out a scroll and began writing orders for his students.

"It's about time their vacations end. It's been too long, and I've been far too lenient." He thought aloud.

* * *

**Two days later**

Chizuru went to the Konoha ninja library to checkout a few more items before training for the day. While there picking up a few more essentials, she came across a book that really piqued her interest. It was titled 'Fuuinjutsu for Beginners, So You Want to be a Seal Master: Book 1 of 6', but the extra long title seemed minuscule in comparison to the name of the author: Minato Namikaze.

"Fuck." Chizuru stated simply, while grabbing the book. "I didn't know the Yondaime wrote anything. If I did I'd've checked it out long ago."

She headed for the front counter with her load and began waiting for the Chunin on duty to finish jotting them down, when he got to the Yondaime's book he smiled.

"This book's really popular, I'm certain at least half of the currently active Konoha ninja have checked it out, it just returned and I'm not surprised it's already on its way out. Most people don't even check out the next book in the set, let alone all six, think you have what it takes to get past where most failed? It'd be nice to see the other sets finally leave their dusty shelves." The Chunin rambled while finishing with the rest of the items.

"Really, it's that popular? No wonder I hadn't seen it yet. Wait, so your telling me that the Yondaime wrote not just a set of six books but multiple sets as well?" Chizuru furthered the conversation.

"There's three more sets of six, each book gets harder than the last I've heard. The only person to get to the second set so far has been Hatake-senpai." The Chunin explained, while handing Chizuru her items.

"Well then, I'll just have to beat him and reach that fourth set." She said in a competitive manner, and grabbed her stuff.

"That's the spirit, take care!" The Chunin called to her as she left.

"I'll be back for that next book!" She called back.

Chizuru walked away from the library and made for her home, she decided that today she would do light training because tomorrow was the start of the new school year. Her second to last year would be where she proved herself, and then when it came time for her last year, she would show her true power, and become top of the class. She arrived at the gate to her home, and headed inside. She placed her scrolls and books down at one end of the dining room table and set herself down next to them with the Yondaime's book in hand.

“Alright, let’s see what this book has to offer.” Chizuru muttered to herself while opening the book.

‘Your handwriting skills must be perfect for you to even consider working on your seals on sealing paper proper. Not good enough, not the best you can do, but absolutely, positively, no better way to do it, perfect. One small mistake can cost you an arm in the art of fuuinjutsu, a slight nudge to the left, or a minuscule motion to the right, and a simple storage seal can be as deadly as an explosive tag. This is lesson one for seal making, and in this book there are a multitude of exercises to perfect your handwriting skills, as well as a seal on the back of the book that can trace any exercise you perform in order to judge how perfect it is. To reach the next book in the series, you must master the art of calligraphy, if you are unable, you cannot proceed.’

Chizuru flipped through the rest of the pages to see if she could skim anymore information out of the book, and found them all to be chock full of calligraphy exercises. The white-haired girl sighed, before getting up to grab a sheet of paper and a brush.

“Might as well get started on this.” She said, and got straight to work.

* * *

Chizuru made her way into Iruka's class, wearing a new set of clothes, a long-sleeved black v-neck, white skirt which was tied in the front, and black Konoha-nin sandals. She was just on time, and found an open seat near the back of the class, she made her way over, and sat down. Iruka walked in after her and started the lesson for the day, after prompting her to stand up and introduce herself to the class. When she sat back down, she grabbed her Fuuinjutsu book and a piece of paper out of her bag to continue her calligraphy practice. She finished drawing her tenth copy of the page she was on, when she felt a tap on her right shoulder.

"Um... Sorry for bugging you... But... Shouldn't you be paying attention to Iruka-sensei?" A timid voice whispered from the same direction as the tapping.

Chizuru turned to see who was talking and noticed it was Hinata, the bluenette was slightly turned to her, but was still trying to pay attention to Iruka's lesson.

"Oh sorry." Chizuru whispered back while scratching the back of her head in embarrassment, "I kinda got a bit ahead while studying over the break… so I decided to get the most out of my time here and continue with my Fuuinjutsu training."

"Whoa! You're training to become a Fuuinjutsu master? Isn't it supposed to be incredibly hard?" Hinata asked, her earlier fear replaced by amazement.

"Is it? I don't know, I only just started, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of my handwriting, I trained for hours on it yesterday. I lost track of time and went to bed at midnight!" Chizuru exclaimed, getting a few other students to look at her, and Iruka to briefly stop talking, before he continued the lesson. "Whoops, didn't mean to get so loud."

Hinata giggled at the white-haired girl's antics, and settled back into the silent state of paying attention to Iruka's lesson. Chizuru was called on a few times in class, and answered each question correctly, before getting back to work on her training. Eventually class ended, and everyone was packing up for the day. Chizuru put her things in her bag, and turned to Hinata.

"Hey we should go get something to eat!" She stated cheerfully.

"Huh? Oh, yeah sure! That sounds fun." The bluenette agreed while finishing up with putting her things away.

The two girls left the classroom, and made it outside of the academy in silence, eventually the conversation picked up again.

"So where were you thinking of going?" Hinata asked as they made it out of the front gate.

"I was thinking of going to Ichiraku Ramen. I've only been there a few times, they have good ramen, but I'm going to get some fried rice." Chizuru explained.

"With a place called Ichiraku Ramen I'd hope they'd have good ramen." Hinata joked.

"Okay, when I said good ramen, I meant the best damn ramen in the world." Chizuru corrected.

"I might need to get some of that ramen than. Why are you getting fried rice?" The bluenette asked.

"Oh I'm more of a fried rice fan is all." Chizuru said.

Hinata nodded her head in acknowledgement and the two continued to idly chat while they made their way to Ichiraku's.

* * *

Chizuru stood in the Hokage's office. She had been collected by an ANBU and was told by Hiruzen to just wait for their other guest, and much to the young girl's confusion Hiruzen turned to look out the window instead of the door to the office.

"Um... Hokage-sama... Who's this other guest?" She asked.

"Someone who's late." He jokingly said.

"Oh." Chizuru said.

Suddenly the window flew open and an old man leaped through it.

"You're late." Hiruzen said.

"At least I'm not Kakashi late. Just overestimated my top speed." Jiraiya explained.

"Aren't we all these days." Hiruzen replied jokingly.

"Now what was so important that you called me back on 'urgent' business? Diplomatic issues that have yet to reach my network or?" Jiraiya asked.

"Nothing like that, it's just time you find a replacement for the head of your network." Hiruzen explained.

"So a show of force..." Jiraiya deduced. "Wait, who's this?"

"Jiraiya, Chizuru Ikeda." Hiruzen introduced. "Chizuru, Jiraiya of the sannin."

"Nice to meet you kid." Jiraiya said.

"S-sannin?" Chizuru stuttered out.

"I get that a lot." Jiraiya said smugly.

Hiruzen cleared his throat to get the two's attention.

"Now, I have a mission scroll for you Jiraiya that details your next orders, as well as a request." Hiruzen said.

"A request?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yes. A simple one really, but first, Chizuru?" Hiruzen asked.

"Yes Hokage-sama?" Chizuru said.

"What is your devotion to your special mission?" The Hokage asked.

"My devotion?" She queried.

"Is this a mission that you really wish to follow through with? I must tell you, you aren't the first to take it, but do you believe this to be the path you want to take? Perhaps for life?" Hiruzen questioned.

"For life... I... Y-yeah..." Chizuru began hesitantly, before taking a deep breath, "Yes Hokage-sama. I wish to continue this mission for the rest of my life."

"And how can I be so certain?" The Hokage prodded.

"I gave you my word Hokage-sama, and I never go back on my word! Because that's my ninja way! Believe it!" Chizuru shouted with renewed energy.

"Believe it..." Jiraiya mumbled, contemplating all that was happening at the moment. 'Wait a minute... Hokage-sama-"

Hiruzen cut Jiraiya off and mouthed 'mission report' to him before turning back to Chizuru.

"Then here's a mission scroll and supplies. You are dismissed." Hiruzen said while putting two scrolls down in front of him.

"Yes sir." Chizuru said, then turned to leave with the scrolls.

"Have a good day Chizuru." Hiruzen called to her while she waved goodbye.

Once the door shut the two older men stared at eachother for a few minutes, neither speaking, just contemplating.

"Sensei." Jiraiya said curtly.

"Jiraiya." Hiruzen replied.

"When were you going to tell me?" Jiraiya asked.

"Trust me, I told you as soon as I learned." Hiruzen replied, while grabbing his pipe off his desk.

"Really? That means she... Recently... Hmm..." Jiraiya trailed off.

"Now I can reveal my request," Hiruzen began, "Stay here for her. Help her grow."

"It's not that simple..." Jiraiya started.

"It is that simple." Hiruzen cut in.

"But-" Jiraiya said.

"No buts. She is your goddaughter. You will help her grow into being the kunoichi she was meant to be, or I will order you to." Hiruzen gruffly responded.

Jiraiya sighed. He knew his sensei wouldn't budge anymore, and had no other choice but to concede.

"Yes Hokage-sama." Jiraiya said.

"Good. Now get to your missions." Hiruzen said dismissively.

"Missions?" Jiraiya questioned while leaving out the window, and opening the mission scroll.

The mission scroll turned out to be a storage scroll disguised as a mission scroll and inside it was two mission scrolls, one titled 'Slug', and the other titled 'Prodigy'.

"Uh oh." Jiraiya muttered.


	2. Foundation

**Konohagakure**

Chizuru and Hinata walked together down the street, they had finished another day at the academy and were on their way to Hinata's. It had been a while since her meeting with the Hokage, and Chizuru had been making use of the supplies she was given to complete her mission.

She was given assorted hair whitening products, as well as some nutrient pills crafted specifically to make hair smoother and less spiky. Their purpose was to make Chizuru less reliant on her henge, and more reliant on chakraless ninja techniques. As well as hide her alternate identity from dojutsu users.

As the two girls neared the Hyuga clan compound conversation began to pick up again.

"So what are you going to do tonight?" Chizuru asked.

"Huh? Oh. I guess I'll take care of the garden... Until father decides it's time to train..." Hinata sighed dejectedly, then continued. "What about you?"

"I'm going to continue my fuuinjutsu training with some kage bunshin, and then work on my taijutsu with a few more." Chizuru said nonchalantly.

"You're really lucky... To be able to do the kage bunshin no jutsu that is... At least at the level you can..." Hinata mumbled.

"I guess I am." Chizuru said while scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Um... Why do you train so hard... Or at least... As hard..." Hinata trailed off.

"I train as hard as I do because I want to be the greatest ho-" Chizuru began before coughing into her fist, "Kunoichi ever."

"Are you alright?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, I almost swallowed wrong was all." Chizuru said.

"Almost?" Hinata questioned quietly.

"I caught it at the last second, anyways we should train together one of these days." Chizuru said.

"Yeah... That sounds like fun..." Hinata said.

The two arrived at Hinata's and parted ways with a hug.

* * *

**Elsewhere in Hi no Kuni**

"I swear sensei's off his rocker." Jiraiya said dejectedly.

He was currently leaping through a thick forest toward the last known location of his current mission's fist target.

"I understand bringing her back into the fold, but **him**?" Jiraiya sighed, "This is going to be very troublesome."

"You know what I mean?" He turned toward his two ANBU partners to gauge their reaction, and saw that neither seemed to care.

"Kids these days... No respect!" He grumbled.

* * *

**One week later**

Chizuru put down her brush and gazed upon her paper. She looked between it, and the yondaime's book a few dozen times before shutting the book.

"I think I've finally got it." Chizuru said.

She placed the book's back on her most recent practice paper, and pulsed a small amount of chakra into the seal. The seal lit up and scanned the practice paper, before burning it and puffing out a small rolled up piece of paper.

Chizuru confusedly picked up the paper, and unrolled it. It was a note that read, 'Congratulations! You have completed the first book, and are well on the way to becoming a fuuinjutsu master. The yeast results show extreme promise, and as such you will skip directly into book four, to deeper learn the concept of sealing, and take your first steps into sealcrafting. The other two books would have expanded upon your calligraphy, but it seems you need no help in that front. Now, place your thumb on the small sealing matrix on the bottom right of the back cover, and pulse some chakra into it after putting this note on the main matrix.'

Doing as instructed Chizuru pulsed her chakra and the book poofed out of her hands, and was replaced with the fourth book, 'Fuuinjutsu for beginners: Book 4P of 6, A Real Prodigy I See'.

"Book 4P?" Chizuru questioned.

She flipped the book open and read the first page.

'If you are the prodigy my last book thought you to be, then you are probably wondering what the 'P' in the title stands for. It's simple, by proving yourself in the first book, you've been given the 1st book of the Prodigy branch of the series.' Chizuru stopped reading for a moment to chuckle at the yondaime's eccentricity. 'In this first book you will learn all about sealing theory, and making the first three essential seals. Have fun!'

Chizuru flipped the page, read the first few lines, then got up to go make a cup of coffee.

"It's going to be a long night." She sighed.

* * *

**The next day**

"Young Chizuru, I have some grave news for you..." Hiruzen said to the child.

"What do you mean?" Chizuru asked.

"It's about your parents... They were found dead this morning... An accident occurred, and their cart went over a cliff... I'm sorry..." He struggled to get out.

"My... No... You're lying! You have to be lying!" Chizuru screamed.

"I'm afraid not." Hiruzen began, then motioned his ANBU to leave. Once they were gone he continued. "Good acting. You almost had **me** convinced."

"Thank you Jiji. I think it's all the caffeine and tiredness." Chizuru explained while scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Fuuinjutsu?" Hiruzen prodded.

"Fuuinjutsu." Chizuru replied.

"How far?" He asked.

"I just finished book 4P before getting here." Chizuru said.

"4P? So you're a natural I see." Hiruzen joked.

"Yeah! I have something I'm good at Jiji, and the yondaime keeps putting little notes, or slips of paper that kinda make me feel like he's right there teaching me." Chizuru said.

"Little notes?" Hiruzen questioned.

"Oh like, if the books open for 6 hours a note poofs onto the page you're reading to remind you to stretch, eat and get some water. Or there are the occasional 'You're doing great' in the margins. It just feels so warm, and nice to get praise from my hero like that." Chizuru explained.

"He always was a bit quirky when it came to writing... At least Jiraiya stopped him from making the Fuuinjutsu pop-up books he wanted to." Hiruzen said.

"Pop-up books?" Chizuru asked with a sparkle in her eyes.

"Uh oh." Hiruzen sighed.

* * *

**With Jiraiya**

"Hime." Jiraiya greeted Tsunade.

"Baka." Tsunade greeted back.

"Sensei wants you to return home." He said, while holding out the mission scroll.

"I have no home." She said while taking it, "At least, not anymore..."

She opened the scroll and her eyes seemingly bulged out of her head.

"What the hell!?" She screamed, "Does he know how much debt I'm in? Does he know how much the new medicnin program will cost? Is he crazy?"

"Yes, yes, and maybe." Jiraiya said.

"But... But..." Tsunade stuttered.

"No buts, technically this is an order, but he's at least giving you some real incentive. Plus, you'd finally be able to see your goddaughter." He said.

"Goddaughter? I thought... Wait... Does that mean-" Tsunade began.

"Yep, just like Hatake." Jiraiya said.

"Huh. Kid's gonna need all the help she can get I guess..." Tsunade started, "I... Fine. I'll come back... But send Sensei this."

Tsunade pulled out a scroll and quickly wrote something down before handing it to Jiraiya.

"Alright. Let's get onto the second part of the mission then." Jiraiya sighed.

* * *

**Back in Konoha**

Hiruzen had just sent Chizuru home with a note for class, and a small container of fake tears. When suddenly a road hopped onto his desk.

"A message from Jiraiya already?" He mused.

He unrolled the scroll and stared dead-eyed at the message for a good minute.

"Goddammit." Hiruzen sighed.

On the scroll was a massive middle finger and the words 'You'd better buy some sake for my welcome home party!'

"You know. I think I could go for a walk right about now." Hiruzen said, then got up and headed for the door.

* * *

**Three Months Later, Training Ground 3**

Chizuru summoned a shadow clone and without giving an order, it started running to the wooden posts on the other side of the field. Chizuru pulled out a sealing scroll and quickly began drawing a sealing matrix on it, when she finished, the clone reached the post. Chizuru then grabbed a sack off her belt, as the clone began charging her, and poured it's contents onto the matrix. Out of the sack came a bunch of shattered kunai pieces. Quick as she could, Chizuru sealed the kunai pieces into the matrix and pulled the scroll out across her chest. The clone was bearing down on her, so she pulsed a bit of chakra into the seal and released a hail of metal onto the clone.

"Gotcha." Chizuru said cockily.

The metal shards flew at the clone four times faster than Chizuru could throw, and spread out as they neared their target. The clone dispersed when the shards made contact, and Chizuru watched as the pieces shot toward the wooden posts.

"Hell yeah! Maelstrom variant storage seal field test successful!" Chizuru shouted.

Chizuru stared at the now metal embedded wooden posts, and smiled triumphantly. _A fully realized version of this move would need a name... I got it! It will be called Fuuinton: Tetsu no Dai Uzu no Jutsu(Sealing Style: Iron Maelstrom Jutsu). _Chizuru silently contemplated. After packing up her supplies she sat down in front of the posts to relax and get a drink of water out of her canteen. A few minutes passed and Chizuru noticed a familiar bluenette walking onto the field.

"Hinata-chan! Ready for today's training?" Chizuru called out, while waving.

"Mhmm" Hinata hummed.

The two had been training together for a few weeks now, and were finally falling into a groove. Chizuru would summon fifteen clones, five for fuuinjutsu theory, five for taijutsu sparring, and five for helping Hinata with whatever she was training with. They would start by getting into their stretches, they would then go for as long as they can before one of them decides they need a break, then they'd take a quick snack break, and get back to training right after. Today, however, Chizuru wanted to talk with Hinata before training.

"Hinata-chan, I learned something really cool from hokage-jiji." Chizuru began.

"What is... I mean... What did you learn?" Hinata mumbled.

"He told me how we could end up on a team together!" Chizuru shouted ecstatically.

"He did?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah, well he told me how some of the teams were made, but still." Chizuru began, "Apparently every year there is a team that is made up of the rookie of the year, the top kunoichi, and the dead last of the class."

"Really? What kind of balance... Or more... What purpose..." Hinata wondered aloud.

"Jiji said something about that team being a 'frontline assault team' or 'the heavy hitters' or something like that." Chizuru quoted.

"Hmm... Wait... But if it's made up of the rookie of the year... A-and the top kunoichi... But..." Hinata trailed off.

"The rookie of the year spot isn't just for boys, I think, so we both can be the top two if we try hard enough." Chizuru said.

"But who would be the dead last?" Hinata asked as confidently as she could, after taking a few deep breaths while Chizuru spoke that is.

"Huh. I don't know. Any guesses?" Chizuru asked.

"Oh... Uh... Maybe Kiba?" Hinata said.

"That's what I would think, but then again he isn't a terrible ninja. He may be dumb, but he's still stronger than most in our class... That and he has clan jutsu, and a ninken." Chizuru explained, "Maybe... Ooh! Maybe one of the girls who are too focused on getting with Sasuke, rather than training?"

"Th-that could make sense..." Hinata muttered.

"Now to guess who." Chizuru said while leaning further back against the post.

"Maybe Ino?" Hinata suggested.

"Nah, she has her clan and their techniques at her disposal. Also Jiji said that there'd be another Ino-Shika-Cho team this time." Chizuru began, "I could see Sakura filling that role."

"Why? Doesn't she have the best grades... Written test wise that is... Out of all of us?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah I guess. But you also have to remember that she's bottom of the class taijutsu wise, and, from what she told me, her chakra pool is practically non-existent." Chizuru began, then sighed, "I hope she starts working to better herself... As her friend I can't possibly bear to see her get hurt, but the way she is now, I don't see anything but that happening."

"It's okay Chizuru-chan... I understand..." Hinata comforted.

"I know, I know, I just don't want to see my precious people get hurt..." Chizuru said, then rose to her feet.

"C'mon, I think it's about time we started working toward that team we want." Chizuru said.

* * *

**Meanwhile at the Hokage Tower**

"Chizuru, you could convince a turtle it's a whale, and then make it change it's mind again." Hiruzen joked.

He was looking into his crystal ball while he took a break from the endless mountain of what some called 'paperwork', but he knew the truth, that mountain is hell itself. He took a puff off his pipe, then released it with a sigh. The old man put the crystal ball away and turned back toward his pile of paperwork, when suddenly a toad leaped into his office.

"Jiraiya sent another message? This soon?" Hiruzen questioned, then grabbed the scroll from the toad and watched as it disappeared.

Hiruzen opened the scroll and saw a highly detailed mission report sitting on it, and the words that popped out to him most were, 'mission complete'.

* * *

**One Day ago, Forest in Western Hi no Kuni**

Jiraiya motioned for his team to stop, much to Tsunade's annoyance, and leaped onto the forest floor.

"We'll camp here." He said.

"You do realize it's noon right?" Tsunade growled.

"Yeah, which is the perfect time to stop. We have been searching for two months straight since our last trip into a town, so I believe we can take a day to relax." Jiraiya said, then looked to the ANBU "At least as much as we're able."

The group began setting up their camp, minus Jiraiya, who just needed to unseal his tent, and belongings. Jiraiya sat in his tent, which was five sizes too large, and pulled out his writing supplies. He sat and wrote in his tent for all of 4 hours before he was called out for dinner. The group ate together, and Jiraiya excused himself to use the bathroom. After Jiraiya finished, he started walking back to camp, when a kunai flew past his head and into the tree to his right.

"I was wondering when you would show up." Jiraiya joked.

"An informal visit I see." The assailant deduced.

"No, completely formal, in fact," Jiraiya began, then tossed a scroll in the direction of the attacker, "You've got new orders."

"Orders?" The man asked.

"Yeah, sensei's acting all uppity and is recalling all the powerful shinobi he can." Jiraiya explained.

"The organization's not going to like me leaving like this..." The man said.

"You wont be up and leaving just like that, just read the scroll already Itachi." Jiraiya said.

Itachi opened the scroll and scanned through it before rolling the scroll back up.

"So..." Itachi began, "I guess I'll be seeing you in four years."

"Don't get your hopes up kid, you already know we'll be seeing eachother next year." Jiraiya joked.

"But what if I don't think he's..." Itachi started.

"Ready?" Jiraiya finished, "Kid, I don't think he'll ever be ready. But, that doesn't stop time from progressing and enemies from growing stronger."

"Right. He needs strength... And I guess... He needs me..." Itachi sighed.

"Right. Have fun Itachi, and, try not to get into trouble." Jiraiya said as he turned to leave.

"Hmph." Itachi hummed, before shunshining away.

* * *

 **Four Months Later, Konoha Ninja** **Academy**

Chizuru settled into her taijutsu stance and watched as Hinata activated her byakugan across from her. Her byakugan would have normally worried Chizuru, but recently an old lady set up shop in the village's main hospital and called her in for the occasional checkup. The appointments were established to further Chizuru's disguise, what with chakra infusions that were meant to make certain hormones produce quicker, or in greater quantities, or others the opposite. Some of the appointments had her getting treatment on her eyes, which, to her surprise, was able to change their natural pigment to the green she had chosen for her henge, or getting her whole body infused with special chakra that was meant to change properties within her cells, or something like that, she could only follow so much of what the old lady was saying.

Hinata and Chizuru were getting ready to have their first one-on-one spar, as their names were pulled to begin the kunoichi bracket of the taijutsu spar. They hadn't attempted a one-on-one before, because they wished for people to see how much they had grown since they began training together.

"Alright, I want a nice clean fight, taijutsu only, whoever leaves the ring first is eliminated, and the winner moves onto the next stage." Iruka announced, "Any questions?"

When neither party answered, he left the ring and stood on the sidelines.

"Ready?" Iruka began, "Begin!"

The two flew at eachother and Chizuru made the first move by moving her fist in for a punch. Hinata saw this and bobbed to the side while throwing a jab toward Chizuru's shoulder. The white haired girl predicted this however, and pulled back her punch and rolled backwards out of reach of the jab, while kicking out at Hinata with her left foot. Hinata reacted by leaping backwards, which forced her on the defensive. Chizuru threw a kick with her right foot, which Hinata dodged, then punched with her left hand, another dodge, before trying to sweep Hinata's feet out from under her.

Hinata seeing this as her opening leaped into the air and threw a roundhouse kick toward Chizuru's head, which she caught. Hinata used the leverage of Chizuru's hold on her ankle to throw herself toward the girl with a punch. Chizuru released Hinata and brought her arms up in an 'x' to absorb the punch, and skidded back a foot when it made contact.

The two threw themselves at eachother again, and again started trading blows, Chizuru got a punch in on Hinata's shoulder and the two separated, then flew again into combat. Hinata got a solid strike with her knee into Chizuru's chest, and the two went back and forward, each solid hit made the crowd lean in closer, and watch with further interest, while every dodge was a spectacle to see. The two spun around one another, and traded blows as often as they could, until they separated and took a step back from one another to catch their breath.

"You're way better than I expected." Chizuru complimented.

"You too." Hinata said simply.

"But it's time to end this." Chizuru said.

The two launched at eachother again, and once more began trading blows. A kick here, a punch there, and finally, a tackle. Chizuru leaped into Hinata and wrapped her arms around her back as they flew toward the edge of the ring. Hinata tried to wriggle out of the grip, but couldn't and the two laded on the ground as Iruka called out Chizuru's victory.

"That was SO much fun!" Chizuru yelled while properly hugging Hinata.

"Y-yeah!" Hinata squeaked out.

The crowd of kids was cheering wildly at such an awesome spar, while Iruka tried to settle them down, to get the next participants into the ring. Chizuru released Hinata and got to her feet, she then held out her hand to lift Hinata off the ground.

"Wanna get some Ichiraku's after class?" Chizuru asked.

"S-sure!" Hinata replied louder than she planned.

"Hell yeah!" Chizuru said, "I'll pay don't worry."

"Y-yeah..." Hinata mumbled.

"Hey let's go sit together to watch the rest of the fights." Chizuru said, while pulling Hinata to the bench beside the ring.

* * *

**Later that day  
**

Chizuru and Hinata sat together and ate their fill of ramen, joking all the while. They finished up and Chizuru paid like she said she would, before heading home. Chizuru walked Hinata home, before setting off to her own place. While walking she began to lose herself in thought. _Only five months until we become ninja... I really need to think of a proper outfit don't I... Oh but I'd need to get something custom made... And replacements for it... Damn... That's gonna empty Gama-chan more than I want to right now... Maybe Jiji can help me get it! Yeah, he'll definitely help! Now what's for dinn-_ Before she could finish her thought process she bumped into someone.

"Sorry!" Chizuru called out.

The man who she bumped into turned around and stared at her for a moment before smiling.

"No no, it's alright, I'm the one who suddenly stopped." The raven haired man said.

The two stared at each other for a minute, before Chizuru got bored and started looking around. She looked at what he was previously staring at, and saw that they were standing in front of the Uchiha Clan compound.

"Did you know them?" Chizuru asked.

"Yeah, I was friends with a few of them." He answered.

"Must be hard then..." Chizuru said sadly.

"Hm?" The man hummed.

"Losing your precious people can't ever be fun..." She continued, to which the man sighed.

"You'd be right, it is really hard." He agreed.

"You look like someone I know, but you're not as much of a teme as him." Chizuru changed the subject.

"Oh really," the man started, then gave something eerily like a knowing smile, "And what's his name?"

"His name is Sasuke, and he's got a real 'thousand-mile-pole-up-his-ass' personality." She joked, to which the man laughed heartily.

"Really now?" The man asked then looked at the setting sun, "It's getting late, shouldn't you be getting home to your parents?"

"Oh, I... Uh yeah..." She mumbled.

"Goodnight." He called, then turned to leave.

"Goodnight." She said.

* * *

**That Night, Hokage Office**

The hokage sat in his office and stared out the window, he sent his ANBU guard out of his office in anticipation of his special guest. Hiruzen was starting to wonder where his guest was, when, as if on queue, he appeared behind him bowing in full ANBU garb.

"Weasel reporting for duty Hokage-sama." The ANBU stated.

"There's no need for that, you're ex-ANBU now." Hiruzen sighed.

The ANBU took off his mask and in his place stood Itachi.

"Now Itachi, it's good to see you again. Anything to report?" Hiruzen asked.

"Yes sir." He began, "The network was a total mess, and took me nearly the whole period in between receiving my orders and now to fix it back up."

"Figures, Jiraiya was starting to drown himself in his sorrow before I recalled him. What is the situation of the network now?" Hiruzen questioned.

"From the stories I've heard, and some of the documents given to me by Jiraiya-sama himself, it is running smoother than it did in its prime." Itachi reported.

"Good." Hiruzen commended.

"The next order of business is in regards to S-Rank traitor Orochimaru." Itachi started, to which Hiruzen nearly visibly flinched, "After his departure from the Akatsuki, it seems as though he took it upon himself to take over Ta no Kuni, and establish a new Daimyoship, as well as a hidden village of his own."

" **He what!?** " Hiruzen yelled.

"I have no idea how it slipped past the network before, but, after renewing it to it's former glory, we were easily able to put two and two together, especially with how much Oto no Kuni smells of snake." Itachi reported.

"I take it Oto is the new name of the land?" Hiruzen asked.

"Yes sir." Itachi answered.

"Anymore?" Hiruzen prodded.

"Nothing important, the rest is written on this report." Itachi said while pulling a scroll out of his pocket.

"Good. You're dismissed, but." Hiruzen said.

"But?" Itachi asked.

"I just wanted to ask how your hospital trip was." Hiruzen said, while smiling darkly.

"It was fine, why?" Itachi asked, while trying not to sweat.

"Oh no reason, a small toad just told me that someone was getting torn a new asshole from our resident slug princess." Hiruzen said.

"That was definitely not me." Itachi lied.

"Right." Hiruzen said, "Have a good night, Itachi."

"Good night Hokage-sama." Itachi said.

* * *

**One Month Later, Park in Konoha**

A group of three academy students sat together in the shade of a tree, Shikamaru and Choji, who were frequenters of this spot, and their friend Chizuru, who had only joined them a few times before. Choji and Chizuru were munching on some chips together, while Shikamaru laid down trying to sleep in the shade.

"It's weird to think we'll be ninja so soon." Choji said.

"Yeah, only four months left." Chizuru agreed.

"It's a good thing this month's our last break before the three month grind for our final grades." Choji said.

"More like 'it's troublesome'" Chizuru joked, to which Shikamaru sighed.

"At least with graduating I'll be paid for waking up." Shikamaru said.

"That's the spirit!" Chizuru shouted, eliciting a groan from the lazy boy.

Chizuru was smiling happily while she sat with her oldest friends, she hadn't been able to hang out with them much in between training and hanging out with Ino, Sakura, and Hinata. She felt as if she were neglecting them, so she approached them a few weeks ago to rekindle a friendship.

* * *

**Three Weeks Before, Konoha Ninja Academy: Chizuru's Memory Version**

Class had just ended, and everyone was packing up and leaving, Chizuru had spent another day perfecting sealing matrices instead of listening to something she already knew, blowing through an assignment, then getting right back to it. Most of her days consisted of this, yet when Iruka had approached her asking if she wanted to advance to genin early, she declined. Her reasoning being 'I'm graduating in a few months anyways, so I may as well use all this free time to train without worrying about missions', which got a knowing smile, and sagely nod from Iruka, who responded with 'Training is important, and the survival of a whole team may depend on the power of only one of it's members, I hope to see you go far' and then they went out for ramen, it was fun.

She packed her things away and remembered Hinata had training to get done, Ino had to work, and Sakura wanted to go 'bird watching' again, so she was out of options of friends to hang out with. Chizuru started heading for the door when she overheard Choji and Shikamaru making plans to go to 'Yakiniku Q'. Realizing her own hunger, she asked to join the two, Choji looked really confused at her request, and Shikamaru agreed, further confusing the big-boned boy. The three ate together and Shikamaru kept telling stories about the two boys' days with Naruto, and all the trouble they would get into. Choji would ask questions like what Chizuru's favorite food was, or what her favorite flavor of chips was, while sometimes asking for her favorite color, or spot in town. They joked, laughed, talked, and ate, before they knew it the sun was setting, and they paid and left. But just before they parted ways Shikamaru gave Chizuru a slip of paper saying she dropped it. Thanking him and turning to leave, she opened the note and froze. 'Tell me if you need any more book recommendations. -Shikamaru'.

* * *

**Present day**

She snapped out of her thought process when an acorn hit the side of her head.

"Hey!" Chizuru said.

"You were zoning out, Choji and I were thinking of heading to Yakiniku Q, wanna join us?" Shikamaru said while palming another acorn.

"Don't throw anymore! And hell yeah, I'm down for some Yakiniku." Chizuru said.

"Alright, let's get going then," Shikamaru said, while rising to his feet.

The three got up, and headed out of the park towards Yakiniku Q, and began conversing again.

"You guys are lucky to be getting on the same team." Chizuru said.

"Oh so you know about the team placements too?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yeah, Jiji told me while I was visiting him." Chizuru said.

"I'll never get used to your familiarity with our village's strongest members." Shikamaru joked.

"Oi just because I know Ero-sennin, Tsunade-baasan doesn't mean anything." Chizuru said.

"And to give them such mean names..." Choji said.

"Mean? They seem to like my nicknames, much like Shika over here likes his." Chizuru said.

"I guess, but every time I see you call Tsunade-sama that she looks ready to kill you." Shikamaru said.

"Oh that? I think that's because she's a tsundere." Chizuru said.

"Did you- Did you just call Tsunade of the Legendary Sannin, let alone her being the physically strongest member of it, a tsundere?" Shikamaru asked incredulously, while Choji laughed hysterically.

"Well yeah, but I don't mean it in the way of an academy student not wanting to admit a crush, just more of a 'I like you but you have to learn that I do yourself' type of way." She clarified.

"Makes sense, but **god** that's hilarious!" Choji said, before laughing a little more.

"Fine let's just get back on topic." Chizuru pouted.

"I guess you're trying to get top kunoichi?" Shikamaru asked.

"Nah, rookie of the year." Chizuru clarified.

"Oh right, I guess that role's technically not gendered so you can. Who do you want on your team anyways?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well I know Hinata will make kunoichi of the year, and I have already talked Jiji into changing the dead-last from just being measured on lowest grades, and actually basing it off the person's ability to **be** a ninja. So that leaves a good portion of girls in our class to fill the last spot due to their 'duck hunting' habits, but I think Sakura would be the final member of the team." Chizuru explained.

"Why so?" Shikamaru prodded.

"Easy, her mother is on the council, and will hound Jiji unless he puts her on a team with either Sasuke, or a strong clan heir. And by putting her on a team with the two strongest ninja of her class, she wouldn't need to hound him." Chizuru said.

"Sound reasoning." Shikamaru said.

"Nothing else, no more questions?" Chizuru joked.

"No, too troublesome to talk." Shikamaru joked back.

The three laughed at that, before arriving at their destination, and entering.

* * *

**One Month Later T &I Department**

"Right this way Sasuke." A man who introduced himself as Inoichi led the boy through the underground pathway.

"What am I even doing here?" Sasuke asked angrily.

"By orders of Hokage-sama you are to help us in rehabilitating a prisoner." Inoichi declared. "Also, until further notice, you've been promoted to genin, and will be taken on as my apprentice."

"What?" Sasuke asked incredulously. "Just like that?"

Inoichi nodded, then turned toward a solid steel door on his right. He put a key into it, and unlocked it, then pushed it open revealing a pitch black room. The two entered the room, and Inoichi shut the door, and activated the lighting seal. The room flashed into sight and revealed a normal looking apartment, one without windows, but an apartment nonetheless. There was a kitchen, dining area, living room, a few bedrooms and bathrooms, and then another massive steel door where a supposed back door would be located.

"This will be our home away from home while I train you on 'interrogation' and other information gathering tactics, and back there," Inoichi began, then pointed at the other steel door, "Is our prisoner."

"Who is this prisoner?" Sasuke asked.

"I'll show you." Inoichi said while he lead the way toward the steel door.

He opened the steel door with a sealing key, while passing another to Sasuke.

"We will have a two person identification system in place, I open the first door," Inoichi began while placing the seal onto the door and activating it, before removing the paper, "And you open the second door."

The door opened, and revealed the area to be an airlock between the apartment and the prisoner. Sasuke did what Inoichi instructed and opened the second door, only for another airlock to be revealed.

"Now that our chakra has been indexed along side our personal seal keys, this is the final part of identification, we have to both place our seals on the door, mine on yours, in order to unlock it." Inoichi finished.

The two placed their seals, and the door unlocked, Inoichi opened the door and the two stepped inside. In the last room was a massive pane of heavily reinforced and seal-laced glass, in front of the pane was only a couple of office chairs, while behind the pane was a hard prisoner's bed, and an open doorway which led to a bathroom, as well as the prisoner. The prisoner had raven colored hair, was wearing a pitch black cloak, and was sitting with his back turned to the door. Inoichi closed the door, which seemed to make the prisoner stir, and Sasuke watched as the man got to his feet and turned around. The boy's breath hitched in his throat as he stared at the man in front of him, his eyes narrowed, and his face morphed into a snarl.

"Itachi." Sasuke said, venom lacing the word in it's entirety.


	3. Formation

**Konoha Ninja Academy**

"That is correct Sai, you can have a seat now." Iruka said.

Sai, a new student in class, took his seat, and Iruka returned to the lesson. Chizuru, who was seated next to Hinata in the back of the class like usual, was zoning out and staring at the wall at the front of the classroom. To put it simply, she was bored. They have one month until they become ninja, and Iruka's filling the whole amount of time with boring lessons, rather than practical 'you're going to need this on the field' lessons. Chizuru was getting ready to take a nap, when the bell rang, signalling the end of class.

"Alright everyone, as you all know, the graduation exams are in a week, and then you will have two weeks off before team assignments." Iruka reminded. "Have a great rest of your day, and a good weekend!"

Everyone began to file out of class, while Hinata and Chizuru decided to wait to leave and talk for a bit.

"That Sai kid is really weird." Chizuru began.

"Chizuru!" Hinata chided.

"What? I know you were thinking it too." Chizuru joked.

"What? I would... I mean..." Hinata began, then took a deep breath, "I would never!"

Chizuru began laughing at that, then continued.

"I know, I know, I was just kidding, but it is strange that I've never seen him anywhere when he's so... Distinct." Chizuru said.

"That is a little weird..." Hinata started, "But it could just be that... Maybe you just... Kinda overlooked him..." She finished while tripping over her words.

"Could be." Chizuru agreed, then a wide smile formed on her face and her eyes brightened. "We should go get some ramen! I was so bored today, and this is the only way to remedy that!"

"What happened to your daily fuuinjutsu training?" Hinata asked, while the two got up to head out.

"Huh? Oh right, I decided I would train in taijutsu today, what with twenty clones going through katas at home." Chizuru explained.

"You should at least... That is if you want to... Try to do something here... If you don't want to be bored..." Hinata said.

"I guess I could always read, and answer Iruka-sensei's questions if he calls my name." Chizuru said, "Eh, but then again it's not like we'll be going here much longer."

"That's right..." Hinata muttered.

"Worried we won't be on a team?" Chizuru prodded.

"Kinda..." Hinata said.

"Don't be! You're too awesome to not be top kunoichi!" Chizuru shouted encouragingly.

"But what if someone... Like maybe Shino... Gets rookie of the year?" Hinata muttered.

"You think I'd let someone else steal my thunder?" Chizuru asked.

"No... But-" Hinata began.

"No buts! You said it yourself, I wouldn't let anyone else take rookie of the year." Chizuru said, "So how's about I promise it, and you already know that I never go back on my promises."

"I know, I know." Hinata said, smiling at Chizuru's antics.

"Then here goes! I promise you I will not let anyone else take the rookie of the year spot!" Chizuru shouted.

"Th-thank you, Chizuru-chan..." Hinata muttered, blushing a little.

"Now," Chizuru began, while grabbing Hinata's hand, "There's food waiting for us! We gotta hurry!"

Chizuru began dragging Hinata behind her while she ran at full speed toward Ichiraku Ramen.

* * *

**Meanwhile, Underground Apartment**

Sasuke sat at the dining room table finishing up the worksheet he was given by Inoichi, when suddenly Inoichi stopped him.

"That's time." Inoichi said simply.

"What!?" Sasuke demanded.

"You were too slow, and now we'll delay another session with our prisoner until after supplementary lessons, our favorite guest making another visit, and a retake of this test." Inoichi explained.

"How is this even training!?" Sasuke yelled.

"It's perfecting the mind is how. If you can't remember every aspect you've learned on the spot, how could you possibly interrogate foreign ninja?" Inoichi answered.

"I never asked to be in T&I so why do I have to go through this?" Sasuke yelled.

"Orders from your superiors." Inoichi replied simply.

"I get that, but why did they want _me_ of all people to interrogate _him_ _?"_ Sasuke said, calmer than before.

"He said he would only divulge information to you." Inoichi said.

" _And you listened!?!?"_ Sasuke screamed.

"Of course. He is an S-rank criminal, who went through advanced ANBU training to become ANBU captain, and is resistant to practically every form of forced coercion. I am merely an A-rank ninja with minor ANBU training, and a skillset perfect for interrogating." Inoichi explained calmly.

"But why listen to him and bring me here to interrogate him?" Sasuke asked.

"It's easier to get information from prisoners if they are interrogated by family members, or people they believe are close to them." Inoichi explained.

"We are _not_ family!" Sasuke hissed.

"Technically you are, and no amount of denial will get rid of that." Inoichi joked.

"Can I please go get some fresh air?" Sasuke asked defeatedly.

"Yes, but be back before midnight, the guards won't let anyone after that, at least until six in the morning." Inoichi said.

"Wait midnight? What time is it?" Sasuke asked, then looked at the clock and saw that it was 4 in the afternoon, before turning back to Inoichi "Do you really think I'd be out for eight hours?"

Inoichi shrugged, and Sasuke sighed, before getting up, and heading out.

* * *

**Ichiraku Ramen, Ten Minutes Later**

"I'll take four large miso ramen and four large chicken fried rice please!" Chizuru shouted as she entered the booth.

"I'll take one large miso ramen please..." Hinata said after catching her breath.

"Five large miso, and four large chicken fried rice orders coming right up!" Teuchi called as they sat down. "How was class today girls?"

"It was so boring!" Chizuru shouted.

"Really? Why's that?" Teuchi asked while preparing the two's food.

"I didn't have anything to do, and Iruka-sensei just kept on going on boring topics." Chizuru explained.

"Sounds rough." Ayame said while coming out of the back of the ramen shop.

"I know right?" Chizuru said.

"What about you Hinata, how was your day?" Ayame asked.

"I... Uh... Well it was just like any other..." Hinata answered.

"Well I guess that's good, at least it wasn't worse than any other." Teuchi said while nodding sagely.

"What about you guys? How were sales today?" Chizuru asked.

"Huh? Oh they were alright, just a normal days' worth." Teuchi began, "But now you're here, and we can double our profits!" He joked, and started laughing.

"Oi!" Chizuru shouted.

Ayame sighed then grabbed her trusty ladle and bopped Teuchi on the head with it.

"That was rude." She said simply.

"Right... Sorry..." Teuchi said, while rubbing the top of his head.

"Serves you right old man." Chizuru said while crossing her arms.

"Oi, don't make me use it on you too." Ayame said while pointing the ladle at Chizuru.

"I'm sorry! Please anything but the ladle!" Chizuru shouted pleadingly.

"That's better." Ayame said.

Hinata was quietly laughing at the antics of the Ichiraku family plus it's honorary member Chizuru, and settled down when the food was delivered. The two thanked the Ichirakus for the meal, then dug in.

* * *

**With Sasuke Four Minutes Later**

Sasuke walked down the street with his hands in his pockets, no destination in mind, just walking until he found something to do. He walked another few yards until a smell caught his attention, and, made his stomach growl. Sasuke turned toward the source of the smell and saw a shop called 'Ichiraku Ramen'. Shrugging, he decided now was as good a time as any to get dinner, so he walked into the booth.

"Welcome!" Teuchi called out from behind the counter.

"I'll take a large a large miso ramen please." Sasuke ordered.

"One large miso ramen coming right up!" Teuchi called.

Sasuke took a seat a few away from the patrons who were already there and sat in silent contemplation, that was until one of them shouted toward him.

"Oi Duckbutt!" Chizuru called out.

"Chizuru!" Hinata chided.

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked, slightly irked by the nickname.

"Come sit over here and stop acting like a teme! I wanna talk!" She called, then got bopped on the head by Ayame's ladle.

"Stop calling him names, or there'll be more where that came from!" Ayame chided.

"I'm sorry! It won't happen again!" Chizuru apologized.

"What do you want to talk about." Sasuke asked, laughing a little inside.

"Well, what've you been doing since you graduated early? What's it like as a genin? That kinda stuff you know, we are allies after all, even if you are a teme." Chizuru joked.

Sasuke sighed, _Why do I always get called a teme?,_ he questioned silently while getting up and moving over to sit beside the two.

"Much better!" Chizuru exclaimed.

"I can't really tell you what I'm doing now that I graduated, as I've been sworn to secrecy until further notice, and as for what it's like, I take occasional D rank missions, but I'm mostly 'training' with my sensei." Sasuke answered.

"That sounds way better than being bored out of your mind at the academy!" Chizuru exclaimed.

At that moment Sasuke got his food, and Chizuru had hers replaced, and the two ate for a minute before conversation picked up again.

"A new student from a year below was brought into our class for some reason, and Iruka's been trying to hammer civilian subjects into our minds practically since you left." Chizuru said.

"Sounds rough." Sasuke said.

"Why does everyone keep saying that!?" Chizuru asked exasperatedly, while Hinata started laughing quietly.

"It hasn't been that long..." Hinata muttered after calming down from the laughter.

"It's felt like that long!" Chizuru shouted, then crossed her arms and pouted.

Sasuke finished his meal, then stood up.

"I should get going." He said.

"Aw c'mon, it was fun hanging out with you just stay for a bit longer." Chizuru whined.

"I can't, I have to return for training." He said simply.

"Boo." Chizuru began, "Fine! Have a good night!"

"Um... Goodnight..." Hinata muttered.

"You too." Sasuke said simply, then turned to leave.

He began heading back in the direction he came, and again lost himself in reflection over the past few days. So much so, he only barely noticed the cloaked ANBU leaping over his head toward the hokage tower.

* * *

**Hiruzen's Office, Five Minutes Later**

Hiruzen sat behind his desk reading the report Inoichi had given him on Sasuke's progress, when suddenly a weasel masked ANBU shunshined in front of his desk.

"Ah, Itachi, I take it you're doing well?" The hokage asked.

"Yes hokage-sama," Itachi began while taking off his mask, "I'm here for the 'interrogation' session with Sasuke."

"Ah, about that. Inoichi just pushed it back about a week." Hiruzen said.

"Why?" Itachi asked.

"Apparently Sasuke failed a test, and was given supplementary lessons as punishment." Hiruzen explained, "It's all in this report."

"When you're finished with it, I'd like to request to take a look at it." Itachi said.

"No need to request, I was going to hand it over anyways, in fact, you can take it now, I had just finished reading it before you got here." Hiruzen said.

"Thank you hokage-sama." Itachi said.

"No problem." Hiruzen stated, "Now, about what we discussed in our letters."

"I understand, but is now really a good time?" Itachi asked.

"Of course it is, we need to set it in stone if we are to be successful." Hiruzen explained.

"Of course..." Itachi said dejectedly, "And Sasuke?"

"He won't be allowed to leave his apartment until the announcement, and you will have plenty of time to reveal it to him yourself." Hiruzen explained.

"What about the clan heads?" Itachi asked.

"Already briefed, same with many top ninja, and some trusted academy instructors, who have been working tirelessly to implement it into the curriculum." Hiruzen explained.

"You work fast..." Itachi began, "Let's just hope you're not working too fast..."

"Hope is a powerful tool." Hiruzen said while nodding sagely.

"But too much of it is dangerous." Itachi shot back, which Hiruzen laughed at.

"That's why I picked you for this job." Hiruzen said.

"I understand hokage-sama." Itachi said.

"Good, you're dismissed." Hiruzen said.

With that, Itachi left in a swirl of leaves, and Hiruzen turned back to his mountain of paperwork.

* * *

**One Week Later, Konoha Ninja Academy**

"As you all know, today is the day of the exams," Iruka began, "So I brought in Mizuki-sensei here to help with judging you all."

The class watched as the two instructors grabbed a large stack of papers off of the top of their desk each.

"We will now be passing out the written portion of the exam. There are a few extra credit questions here and there, and remember the written exam will count for 40% of your overall grade." Mizuki said, while the two passed out the test packets.

Once the instructors finished passing the tests out they returned to the front of the room, and sat behind their desk, before Iruka spoke up.

"You have two hours to complete the test. You may now begin!" He exclaimed.

Chizuru got to work on her test, answering a history question here, or a math question there. Some questions required you to read in between the lines, and take from it that you have to look at a certain point in the room for your answer, while others were scenarios that you had to write a response that explained how you would escape. Needless to say, the test was the most difficult to date, but still doable. Chizuru finished her test with half an hour to spare, so she pulled out one of the yondaime's books, after turning her test in at the front, and began reading up on more advanced fuuinjutsu theory.

"Time's up!" Iruka announced. "We will now move onto shuriken and kunai throwing, then the combined taijutsu bracket, before we finish with the ninjutsu portion."

The class got to their feet, and started heading out the door, where Mizuki stood to grab the rest of the packets. When everyone made it onto the field where a few human shaped targets stood Iruka pulled out a clipboard and began calling students in alphabetical order. Then giving them a grade out of 10. After a minute or two, it was finally Hinata's turn.

Hinata stepped up to Iruka and took the shuriken he pulled out of his pouch for her to use, and she threw them one by one at rapid succession into every bullseye.

"Good job Hinata, now try with these kunai." He said while pulling out five kunai.

She again threw the weapons in quick succession and hit the bullseyes.

"Perfect ten!" Iruka called out, then looked at the next name on the list.

"Alright Ikeda Chizuru please step forward." Iruka instructed, while pulling out five shuriken from his pouch, "Now, we will start with shuriken."

Chizuru grabbed the weapons and in a show of skill threw them all at the same time. They hit their marks, each on the vital parts of the targets.

"Good job!" Iruka praised, then got out five kunai. "Now if you can do the same with these kunai you'll be guaranteed quite a few bonus points."

Chizuru grabbed the kunai and again launched them all at the same time with the same result of each bullseye hit.

"Another ten, and then some!" Iruka called out, "Great job."

The rest of the kids threw theirs and before they all knew it, they were herded off to the taijutsu ring.

"We will be having a mixed tournament this time around, so you could either go up against a girl or a boy." Iruka began, "Now please come forward and pull numbers from this bowl."

* * *

**Back in the Academy, Two Hours Later**

The tournament had finally ended and the victor was Chizuru, who won after another spectacle of a back-and-forward fight with Hinata. The students were now lined up outside the classroom waiting to complete the ninjutsu portion of the test. Hinata and Chizuru were standing one in front of the other, and decided to spend the time they had to wait talking.

"When we're done with this wanna head out and get some ramen to celebrate our graduation?" Chizuru asked.

"Yeah... That sounds like it would be fun..." Hinata muttered.

"Great!" Chizuru exclaimed, "We won't even have to pay for it 'cause Jiji said he'd pay as a graduation gift!"

"That's great..." Hinata began, "Especially with your apatite..." She joked.

"Oi!" Chizuru exclaimed. "Wait! Was that a mean joke? Coming from the ever so sweet Hyuga Hinata? It couldn't have, unless..."

"I-I... I'm sorry..." Hinata muttered.

"What!? You don't need to apologize! It's awesome that you're coming out of your shell!" Chizuru remedied.

"It is?" Hinata asked, before smirking, "Then I guess I'm sorry you eat so much..."

"Oi!" Chizuru exclaimed again, to which both girls laughed at.

"Hyuga Hinata!" Iruka called from inside the classroom.

The girls had been so preoccupied that they hadn't ever realized they reached the front of the line.

"Good luck Hinata-chan!" Chizuru called, as Hinata walked into the classroom.

When the door shut, Chizuru waited with growing boredom for her turn to come, as well as growing anticipation at seeing Hinata's new hitai-ate. A few minutes passed, then finally Hinata left the room with her hitai-ate tied around her neck.

"Yosh!" Chizuru called out in a way that made Iruka freeze in the other room. "Good job Hinata-chan!"

"Th-thank you Chizuru-chan..." Hinata muttered as the white haired girl hugged her.

"Ikeda Chizuru!" Iruka called.

"Oops! Looks like it's my turn to show how awesome I am!" Chizuru exclaimed.

"Good luck!" Hinata squeaked out.

"Thank you!" Chizuru called as she rushed into the room.

"Alright Chizuru, first off, we would like for you to preform the henge no jutsu." Iruka stated.

Chizuru burst into a cloud of smoke and in her place was a perfect copy of Iruka.

"Why does everyone henge into me!?" Iruka questioned loudly, then realized something, "Wait was that a sealess henge?"

"Yeah." Chizuru said while releasing her henge and rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment.

"Good job! Now, can you preform the kawarimi no jutsu?" Iruka asked.

Again Chizuru burst into a cloud of smoke, and what took her place was Mizuki, who unceremoniously fell to the floor.

"Another sealess jutsu! And to use it to replace yourself with another person? Brilliant!" Iruka exclaimed.

"Yeah, good job." Mizuki growled out, ashamed of being embarrassed by an academy student.

"Thank you senseis!" Chizuru called out, then hopped over the desk while Mizuki took his seat again.

"Alright, now for the bunshin no jutsu." Iruka said.

"I don't know how to do that one..." Chizuru said while scratching the back of her neck.

"What? It was one of the three jutsu you should have learned!" Iruka exclaimed.

"Wait, what if I use a different version of the bunshin no jutsu?" Chizuru called out when she thought that Iruka was getting ready to fail her.

"A different version? The only versions I know of that are different are more advanced bunshin, so I guess doing so would give you extra credit." Iruka said.

"Alright then let me show you my kage bunshin no jutsu!" Chizuru shouted, while a bunch of puffs of smoke popped up around the room.

"Wait! Making that many... Will... Huh." Iruka began then stared in amazement as every seat in the class was filled with kage bunshin, and there were five holding Chizuru up by making a five person pyramid for her to stand on.

"What'd'ya think?" Chizuru asked while her arms were crossed over her chest.

"What do I think?" Iruka asked, while looking over at Mizuki's dumbfounded face. "I think that you pass with flying colors!" He finished.

"Hell yeah!" Chizuru exclaimed.

"But first are there any more skills you would like to showcase to earn extra points?" Iruka asked.

"Oh!" She exclaimed after contemplating for a second, then pulled out a sealing scroll and some ink before quickly drawing a sealing matrix on it, and placing it on the floor. She place her ink jar on the scroll and pulsed a bit of chakra into it, sealing the item, before pulsing another small bit of chakra in and retrieving the item. She then put the scroll away and pulled out a blank tag, and wrote another matrix on it, before pulling out a kunai, and attaching the tag to it. She walked over to the window, opened it, and threw the kunai as far as she could into the air, and the three occupants of the room watched as it exploded in a significant fireball.

"I can continue to display my skills in fuuinjutsu but I think it would be better to just say that I am on the third book of the Prodigy section of the yondaime's intermediate fuuinjutsu series." Chizuru explained, while holding up the book as evidence.

"You're what!?!?!" Iruka exclaimed. "Nobody's gotten that far in forever!"

Chizuru again scratched the back of her neck in embarrassment. Then Iruka continued.

"Unless you have anything even more surprising to show us, then I'll call it here." Iruka began, then continued once he saw Chizuru shake her head "Congratulations Ikeda Chizuru on graduating! You are a shoe-in for rookie of the year! I am so proud of you!" Iruka exclaimed.

"Thank you sensei!" Chizuru called out, then went to the desk to collect her hitai-ate. She tied it around her forehead, and left the room.

She made her way outside and saw that a large crowd of parents had gathered in front of the school. She struggled for a moment to find Hinata, but found her standing next to her own father, her younger sister, and the hokage.

"Jiji! Hinata-chan!" Chizuru called out as she ran toward them.

"Chizuru-chan!" Hinata called out.

"Ah Chizuru, it's good to see you with that hitai-ate. Are you ready to take your next step in becoming a strong kunoichi?" Hiruzen asked.

"Of course!" Chizuru exclaimed. "Iruka even said I was 'a shoe-in for rookie of the year'!"

"Really now?" Hinata's father, Hiashi questioned.

"Yeah! And I know for sure Hinata here is gonna be top kunoichi! She's just that awesome!" Chizuru shouted.

"She really has improved." Hiashi began, "And I believe I have you to thank for that."

"What? No way!" Chizuru exclaimed.

"What do you mean no way?" Hiashi questioned.

"I mean that there's no way you should be thanking me, she got stronger on her own!" Chizuru explained loudly.

"I... Thank you Chizuru-chan..." Hinata muttered.

"I see. Well then, good job Hinata, you've done well to improve yourself." Hiashi praised.

"Thank you father." Hinata said.

"Now then, I said I owed someone ramen once they graduated, and I heard she may have invited a friend of hers to join us." Hiruzen commented, "Hiashi you may join us if you please."

"I think I will, it will allow me to get to know the girl my daughter won't stop talking about better. And plus, I could go for something to eat." Hiashi stated.

"Alright then, let's get going." Hiruzen said, and the group made their way off the academy's grounds.

* * *

**Meanwhile, With Sasuke**

Sasuke was sitting at the dining room table again hurrying through the test he was given, and finishing just as Inoichi called time.

"Good job, you've improved." Inoichi praised, "You just dodged another lesson with Ibiki, and instead get to perform your first interrogation. Depending on your performance, you may get to move on to the next set of lessons instead of repeating these ones."

"Yes sensei." Sasuke said.

"Now, let's get to our prisoner." Inoichi said.

The two got up and headed for the large metal door at the back of the apartment, and began going through the process of entering the prisoner's chambers. Once in, Sasuke and Inoichi took a seat and gazed upon Itachi, who sat on the floor staring at the pair.

"Itachi." Sasuke greeted sternly.

"Sasuke." Itachi greeted, a twinge of sadness in his voice.

"It's time you talk," Sasuke began, then looked at his clipboard, "Why did you massacre the Uchiha?"

"It's a long story." Itachi said.

"I've got nothing but time." Sasuke responded levelly.

"Very well. We'll start from the beginning then. What do you know about the aftermath of the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha?" Itachi asked.

"The yondaime died killing the Kyuubi, and the village took years to recover. What importance does this have to the massacre?" Sasuke questioned.

"Do you know of the backlash the Uchiha received after the attack?" Itachi asked.

"What backlash?" Sasuke asked.

"The very backlash that led them down the path they took, they were shunned and criticized for not battling with the Kyuubi, and instead evacuating civilians." Itachi explained.

"What is the path they took?" Sasuke questioned, while jotting down the information.

"The path they took led them straight to the massacre." Itachi said.

"What specifically was that path?" Sasuke asked with anger edging his voice, causing Itachi to sigh.

"It's time you learned." Itachi said.

"Learn what?" Sasuke asked.

"About the coup." Itachi said.

"The coup?" Sasuke queried.

"The Uchiha Clan planned a coup to overthrow the sandaime hokage, and install in his place our father, Fugaku." Itachi announced.

"How do I know you're not lying?" Sasuke asked, his hand trembling a little in anger.

"Hokage-sama will be releasing this information to the public in the coming week." Itachi said.

"Why was it hidden from me?" Sasuke asked.

"You were, and still are too young to deal with the ramifications of such information." Itachi explained.

"Then why tell me?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't necessarily have a choice in the matter now, do I?" Itachi explained, while gesturing around the room.

Sasuke grunted as he wrote the information down.

"Why a coup?" Sasuke asked.

"They were shunned, and berated by the civilian populous, sometimes even attacked by people who lost family to the Kyuubi. They could handle it, but every person they arrested for assaulting them would gain them more criticism, more backlash, and more distrust." Itachi explained, "Eventually, even ninja joined the civilian's side, members of prominent clans joined the civilian's side, and worst of all, the three elders joined the civilian's side."

"The three elders?" Sasuke questioned.

"Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, who were a part of Senju Tobirama's genin team alongside Sarutobi Hiruzen, and another of that generation of ninja, Shimura Danzo make up the three elders." Itachi answered.

"And these elders, Homura, Koharu, and Danzo hold so much sway that they are considered the worst part of the piling resent toward the Uchiha?" Sasuke asked.

"Of course. They are essentially a shadow council, which can sway the opinions of both the civilian and shinobi councils any which way. If they hold a strong opinion, then the councils hold that strong opinion." Itachi explained.

"So the Uchiha clan responded by planning a coup to overthrow the hokage." Sasuke summarized.

"Not just the hokage, but the three elders, and the civilian and shinobi councils too. All to be replaced by prominent Uchiha, or Uchiha loyal clans." Itachi put in.

"So it wasn't just going to end with a coup, even if the coup succeeded... There would have been a civil war... And maybe even a fourth shinobi world war..." Sasuke put together.

"It would have led to the destruction of Konohagakure." Itachi confirmed.

"Oh." Sasuke said simply. "And if the coup failed?"

"The Uchiha clan would no longer exist. There would be no survivors, or if any, they would be scattered among the remaining clans, in order to preserve the sharingan. The village would potentially be weakened to the point in which the other ninja villages see an opportunity to attack, and a fourth shinobi world war would start." Itachi explained.

"So Konoha loses in the end. No matter what. Unless the party who took out the clan was one of their own. No other clan gets weakened but the one that holed itself up in the village, the one that took missions outside the village only when necessary." Sasuke summarized.

"In the end, only the internal defenses of the village are damaged, but not to a degree that the already weakened ninja villages could take advantage of." Itachi explained.

"So you did it out of loyalty to the village?" Sasuke asked.

"That is only half the reason." Itachi said.

"Why else did you do it?" Sasuke questioned.

"I did it to save you." Itachi clarified.

"How in the fuck did killing our entire clan end up saving me?" Sasuke demanded.

"It was either work against the Uchiha, and destroy the coup when it happened, again, risking a world war, or kill everyone but you." Itachi said.

"Again, how would that have saved me in comparison?" Sasuke asked.

"You would have been killed in the coup, or sold to another clan afterwards. I would have been powerless to do anything until Hiruzen chose to step down and pass the hat over to me, and by then, whatever clan had you could have already exploited the sharingan genes, or convinced you to be loyal to just them." Itachi explained.

"I could have resisted." Sasuke urged.

"No one is immune to propaganda, especially at that age." Itachi said blandly.

"So this is better? Living a life without my parents, without a family? Being the last of the clan, being put on display for every fangirl in the village to gawk and pursuit? What kind of life is this?" Sasuke demanded angrily.

"One I wish you never had to live. One I wish to amend. I just hope it's not too late..." Itachi sighed.

"I'm ready to head back Inoichi." Sasuke said, while rising to his feet.

* * *

**One Week Later, Outside the Hokage Tower  
**

A massive crowd of people converged to hear the words of their leader, one member of which had heard what was to be announced before, the only others who knew stood behind the hokage as he watched over the gathering crowd. The hokage stood atop his tower with the entirety of the shinobi council behind him, along with two of his students standing at his right and left sides a little ways back. Also stood on the roof were the elite jonin ordered to stay in the village for the time being, and a few academy instructors. The group watched as their hokage cleared his throat, and raised his hands in a manner to silence the crowd below.

"Today I have important news to share!" Hiruzen began, "In regards to a matter that has been silenced for too long!"

The crowd began murmuring amongst itself, occasional mutterings of fox or demon could be heard, but nothing incriminating.

"Five years ago, an event shook our village to the core, and out of it we lost one of our founding clans!" Hiruzen started, "Today I wish to make light of information regarding said event, and to clarify the reasons behind it happening! Today, I wish to tell you the truth of the Uchiha Massacre!"

Sasuke sighed, then turned around, and left the crowd. All the while, Hiruzen explained everything Itachi detailed, only emphasizing more on how Itachi was a hero, and how the clan paid the ultimate price for almost destroying Konoha. Sasuke didn't want to hear it, and sped off toward his 'home', toward Itachi.


	4. Teamwork

**Konoha Ninja Academy**

Iruka's class was abuzz with the talking and joking of the genin-to-be, everyone in the room sported a hitai-ate, and sat together with their friends. Chizuru was sitting next to Hinata focusing on the front of the room. They were both wearing their 'new official ninja outfits', as Chizuru called them, and had drawn a little bit of attention from around the room.

Chizuru was wearing a plain black cloak over her new clothes, which were made up of a mesh under armor covered by a black jacket with dark orange lining the edge, as well as black cargo pants. On the inside of her cloak her special, new and improved, _Fuuinton: Tetsu no Dai Uzu_ seals were painted. While storage seals were painted into her pant's pockets.

Hinata was wearing a similar outfit, minus the cloak, as well as the edges on her jacket were lined with blue. Her pant's pockets also had storage seals drawn inside of them, courtesy of Chizuru.

The class' reaction to the news about Itachi the clan killer, and the Uchiha's true fate was mixed. On the one side, the fangirls of Sasuke reacted in a way that showed they still supported the Uchiha, while some of the boys in the class begun to spin tales of mistrust in relation to Sasuke. The clan heirs were more neutral on the matter, seeing it as it was, a clan of two, trying to make up for their clan's prior misdeeds. Everyone still felt sorry for the two Uchiha for what had to be done, and some, especially the fangirls of Sasuke, even saw Itachi as a hero like Hiruzen wanted them to. Chizuru was unsure where she stood, as she had no real family of her own, but she knew she could never hurt those she loved, even if they were plotting against the village. She knew her Jiji really wanted Itachi to be seen as a hero though, and decided to trust his word that Itachi really was good.

Chizuru was broken from her thoughts, and her and Hinata looked to the door at the front of the class as they watched as Iruka stepped in with a clipboard with a list of names on it. The class began to quiet down as he stood behind his desk.

"Alright everyone, before I tell you what teams you'll be on, I have something I wish to say." Iruka began, "I just hope you know I cannot be any prouder of each and every one of you. I hope you all go on to become the greatest generation of ninjas this world has ever seen!" Iruka finished, with tears in his eyes.

The class broke out into a murmur, and Iruka smiled at them broadly.

"I guess I should get to the team assignments." Iruka began, "Alright, team one will consist of..."

Iruka began listing off the names on his sheet in groups of three, starting with the group of kids in the class without clan heritage, before reaching team seven.

"Team seven, Haruno Sakura, Hyuga Hinata, and Ikeda Chizuru. Your sensei will be Hatake Kakashi." Iruka said, and Hinata passed a few ryo to Chizuru.

"Team eight, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Sai." Iruka started, "Your sensei will be Yuhi Kurenai."

"Team nine is still in circulation, so team ten will consist of Akimichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino, under Sarutobi Asuma. They should be arriving soon." Iruka finished, then sat down.

Chizuru leaned back in her chair and watched as Sakura broke away from Ino to join them, before she made it over, the door to the classroom opened. Two jonin walked in then froze when they looked at the back corner.

"Kakashi!? What the hell!? You're early!?" The two shouted in unison.

"Hm? Why wouldn't I be?" Kakashi asked.

"You're always late that's why!" Asuma shouted, "What did my father threaten you with?"

"I'm hurt that you'd assume I had to be threatened to meet up with my cute little genin early." Kakashi feigned sadness.

"What? Nevermind... Just, what did he do to get you to come this early?" Kurenai asked.

"He just asked kindly." Kakashi stated, then walked toward the door, "Anyways team seven with me."

The class finally shook off the confusion at the jonin who was seemingly there the entire time, while Chizuru, Hinata, and Sakura made to join him.

* * *

**Three Days Earlier, Hokage's Office**

Kakashi shunshined in front of the Hokage's desk, a slightly worried look spread across his face as he recalled the date.

"You have a mission for me?" He asked.

"No need to worry about that, the mission request was just a lie to get you to show up on time." Hiruzen replied jokingly.

"I see..." Kakashi said.

"But in all seriousness." Hiruzen began after clearing his throat, "I have a request for you, one that will become an order with reprimands if you don't fulfill it." Hiruzen said while looking pointedly at the pouch Kakashi kept his most prized possession.

"I... Understood hokage-sama..." Kakashi replied solemnly.

"Good, now that I have your full attention, I have a request in regards to a certain mutual friend's daughter." Hiruzen began.

"Daughter?" Kakashi asked.

"Oh that's right, you were off on that S rank when word was passed to the clan heads and elite jonin weren't you?" Hiruzen deduced.

"What happened?" Kakashi asked.

"Nothing much, just that a recently retired prankster took on a mission similar to an important one of yours." Hiruzen said.

_Prankster... Important mission... Present tense... Naruto._ Kakashi silently ran through the conversation, before realization flashed across his face.

"I see you've still got that detective side in you." Hiruzen joked.

"Can I ask what her name is?" Kakashi said.

"Her name is Ikeda Chizuru, white hair, green eyes, short for her age, but prone to grow if Minato's anything to go off of." Hiruzen explained.

"I see... Hokage-sama?" Kakashi began, to which Hiruzen gestured for him to continue. "Is this a request to take her and her team's training serious?"

"Yes." Hiruzen confirmed.

"Understood sir." Kakashi replied, then made for the door.

"I take it that's a yes?" Hiruzen asked.

"Yes sir." Kakashi replied, then shunshined away.

* * *

**Same time, Konoha Hospital**

"Alright Chizuru, you are to return every other month until further notice for checkups." Shizune said.

"As for now we've completed the final step of chakra infusion based DNA realignment. Your hair and eyes should remain permanent, but I'd recommend signing off on this paper that you'd be willing to continue the chakra infusions longer as a just-in-case." Tsunade reported, while passing over a sheet of paper.

"Now C.I.F.T. will be our next goal, as a part of it requires medication, which requires refills every other month, you will also need to sign off on these sheets." Shizune explained while passing a few more to the girl.

Chizuru looked down at one of the CIFT pages and read the phrase Chakra Infusion Feminization Therapy, as well as trying and failing to read the medicine names. Before sighing, and signing the pages.

"Thank you." She said, "You've been a big help."

"Just doing my job gaki." Tsunade replied.

"No really, thanks a lot baachan!" Chizuru called while rushing out the door.

"Baachan!? I'll kill you gaki! Get back here!" Tsunade called.

"She left in such a rush..." Shizune mumbled, "She forgot her prescriptions..."

Sighing deeply, Shizune got up wrote a note that she had to run an errand real quick for Tsunade to see, and headed for Chizuru's house with the prescriptions.

* * *

**Present Day, roof of Konoha Ninja Academy**

Kakashi sat in front of his new students for a moment, before clearing his throat.

"Now, how about we introduce ourselves?" He suggested, "I'll go first. My name is Hatake Kakashi, I am twenty-six years old, my hobbies include reading, and training, I like dogs and dislike anyone who spoils parts of something I will read. I don't necessarily have a dream, but I suppose now it will be training you to be the best ninja I can. Now Pinky, you're up. Remember, name, age, hobbies, likes, dislikes, dreams."

"Pinky? Oh me..." Sakura said, "My name is Haruno Sakura, I am twelve years old, I used to watch birds, but now I guess I hang out with Ino instead... I like... Uh... My friends, and I dislike people who are mean to them. And I guess my dream is... Well... I don't know..."

"Interesting, alright, tweedle-blue you're up."

"Um... I... My name is Hyuga Hinata, I am twelve too... And... I enjoy flower pressing, and uh... I like Chizuru-chan... Er, I like my friends like Chizuru-chan that is... and... I dislike the way my clan is run, and dream to change it..." Hinata stumbled over her words, while Chizuru smiled at her encouragingly.

"Gonna have to work on that..." Kakashi muttered, "Alright, now how about you tweedle-dumb?"

"Why am I tweedle-dumb!?" Chizuru shouted questioningly to which Sakura and Hinata laughed.

Kakashi shrugged, getting a pout out of Chizuru, before she sighed and continued.

"Fine. My name is Ikeda Chizuru, I am also twelve, and my hobbies include training, reading, and hanging out with my friends! I like ramen, fired rice, and fuuinjutsu, and I dislike perverts, idiots, and mean people in general! My dream is to become the greatest kunoichi of all time, and I will so you'd better believe it!" She exclaimed loudly.

"I like the energy, and hope your liking of training and reading isn't just to get on my good side." Kakashi said.

"Why would it get me on your good side?" Chizuru asked while tilting her head.

"You weren't listening to me were you..." Kakashi said dejectedly.

"I listened, you said to talk about our name, age, hobbies, dreams, likes, and dislikes, right?" Chizuru asked.

"But I also said mine..." Kakashi said.

"Oh!" Chizuru said in realization, "I didn't listen to that!" She said bluntly.

"Figures..." Kakashi muttered.

"Oi! I was lost on the road of life or something!" Chizuru defended.

"Where did you here that?" Kakashi asked, a proud smile hidden behind his mask.

"I think Jiji said it once." Chizuru replied.

"What had you lost then?" Kakashi asked, wanting to finish up before his other students grew bored.

"Huh? Oh, I was just thinking about what kinda ninja I'll be in a few years was all..." Chizuru said while scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Oh." Kakashi said bluntly, "Well then, let's get onto the next order of business. Tomorrow we will be having a mission of sorts."

"A mission?" Sakura questioned.

"Yes, well, more of a survival exercise." Kakashi explained, "Meet me at training ground three at eight in the morning, I recommend not eating breakfast if you don't want to throw up."

"Yes sensei!" The three said in unison.

"Alright, see you tomorrow then." He said before leaving in a shunshin.

"I kinda thought we'd do more..." Chizuru said dejectedly.

"It kinda makes sense that a jonin like him would have something else to do." Sakura said.

"I guess." Chizuru conceded, "But hey! Anyone wanna grab some Ichiraku to celebrate our team?" Chizuru announced.

"I'd like that..." Hinata muttered.

"Yeah sure, I bet Ino's off with her team getting Yakiniku anyways, so no reason not to hang out with you guys." Sakura said.

"Oi!" Chizuru shouted, and the three burst out laughing.

Kakashi watched from an adjacent rooftop as the three headed off, and smiled.

"Looks like I have a really great team in the works now don't I?" He thought aloud, "Let's hope this attitude continues tomorrow when I test them."

* * *

**Training Ground 3, Eight in the Morning the next day  
**

Chizuru, Sakura, and Hinata stood together by the posts in the middle of the training ground and watched as Kakashi walked across the field to them.

"Good morning everyone!" He called with a wave.

"Good morning sensei!" The three called back, each with a different level of exuberance.

"When's the survival exercise gonna start, sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, that way we can ace it and get some breakfast, or lunch, brunch? I don't know, food." Chizuru rambled.

"Ah, about that you see, I packed some lunches for all of you for after the exercise, but I seem to have only packed two..." Kakashi said while scratching the back of his neck.

"We could all four share it." Chizuru replied, before turning to Sakura and Hinata. "Right?"

"Of course!" Sakura said.

"Mhmm." Hinata replied softly.

"What about you sensei?" Chizuru asked.

"Oh I'll be fine without sharing, if I wanted to I could pick something up on my way home, I had a large breakfast." Kakashi explained.

"So the three of us can share the lunches after the exercise?" Chizuru asked hopefully.

"Of course you can." Kakashi said while eye smiling at the group, "I guess we should get to the exercise then."

The group of three stood a little straighter as they waited for instructions, while Kakashi pulled out a timer and a pair of bells.

"The task is simple, you will have until noon to get these bells from me," He said.

"What if we don't get the bells?" Sakura asked.

"Well, then something really bad will happen." He explained while releasing a minimal amount of killing intent.

The three girls seemed to clam up a little at the killing intent, but stood straight again soon afterwards.

"U-understood..." The three mumbled.

"Good, then we'll start. Oh, and I recommend you come at me with intent to kill, or these bells will remain mine." Kakashi said, then shunshined away after starting the alarm.

The three girls immediately huddled together and began signing to eachother using the academy-taught sign language.

'Plan?' Chizuru signed.

'Forest' Sakura signed back.

'Plan in forest?' Hinata signed.

'Target no hear in forest, talk plan there.' Sakura signed back.

'Good plan.' Chizuru signed.

With that the group rushed into the forest, before finding themselves in a small hollow.

"Alright, I think we're far enough now." Sakura said.

"Yeah me too." Chizuru agreed, "I think we should lay some of our skills on the table so we can get a real plan going."

"Like what?" Hinata asked.

"Well... Like three skills that could help in detaining our sensei, or just getting close enough to get the bells. I'll go first, kage bunshin, barrier seals, and my aim with multiple shuriken and kunai. Now Hinata you go."

"Um... I have my byakugan, aim near to your level, and I have... I have my juken..." Hinata trailed off.

"Great! Now Sakura." Chizuru said.

"I have the power of math, strategy, and... Chakra control I guess." Sakura said.

"Cool! Okay, let's see... Maybe if we... Hmm... I've got it!" Chizuru exclaimed after a moment of silent deliberation, "Get this, I have four clones make, and deploy one of my highest level barrier seals, while fifty more of my clones run in and try to get the bells, a third henged as Hinata, and another third henged as you Sakura. Now, this is where it gets stupid, Hinata and I will attack with my clones, while you Sakura are going to cast some low level genjutsu on some of our strikes to make it look like they are slightly off from where they are actually meant to be." Chizuru explained.

"Understood." Sakura said.

"Right..." Hinata mumbled.

"Good! Now let operation, 'where the fuck is sensei' commence!" Chizuru shouted while summoning her fifty four, mostly henged, clones. She then summoned fifteen more, which leapt away as quick as they could.

"What were those ones for?" Sakura asked.

"Scouting." Chizuru answered plainly.

The group of clones and the three soon headed back to the posts after one of Chizuru's clones leapt into combat against Kakashi and got destroyed.

Once the giant group arrived, they were met with the sight of Kakashi standing in the middle of the field, holding a little orange book. He didn't bother to look up, when suddenly the army surged at him. Following their plan to a tee, the three kunoichi joined the clones in fighting their sensei, Sakura focusing more so on spinning the genjutsu than fighting, the army leapt nearly one by one into the clutches of Kakashi, who picked them off as quickly as they came. He tried to read through the whole experience, but was forced to put his book away when a large number of clones leaped on him all at once, they went for the bells, while a few struck him, one of which did so in a very Hyuuga-like manner, which tipped Kakashi off.

_So they're all here, and not just using clones to get the bells, well, I believe that means they pass, but let's just see how far they can go._ Kakashi silently worked out. The army had dwindled significantly by this point, and Kakashi counted only about a dozen more when suddenly something unexpected happened, and a group of four clones rushed his position from all sides. He made to attack, when they instead placed what looked to be seals on the ground, before activating them. Kakashi watched as the seals lit up, cast a beam of purple light from themselves, and the purple light surrounded him, molding itself into a translucent swirling purple egg-like shell around him, when he finally put two and two together, he was too late to react.

"Smart." Was all he said.

"Now sensei, you can pass us the bells, or you can experience what it feels like to be crushed to death from all sides at once." Chizuru explained, hoping the ultimatum was enough for their sensei to pass over the bells, as she didn't want to see what would happen when the barrier fully closed in.

"Good ploy, it's too bad I was in the anbu and already accepted the fact that I would one day die for the village. If it weren't for that, and I was any other man, you would have got the bells." The white haired jonin explained.

"What!? Dammit!" Chizuru yelled.

"Hey don't get upset, I already passed you guys, so I think it would be wise to say, get mad enough to crush me in here..." Kakashi explained.

"Oh." Chizuru said plainly. "Wait... We passed?"

"Yes." Kakashi answered.

"Hell yeah!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Yes!" Sakura exclaimed, while Hinata smiled as wide as she could.

They may not have known failure would've meant they wouldn't be ninja, but they did showcase their willingness to work together from the get go, and made it unnecessary for Kakashi to even trick them with any of his normal guises, as he saw they had already worked their way around most without his intervention.

"Now, please release me so we can go over our training schedule." Kakashi ordered.

"Yes sensei." Chizuru replied.

The barrier dissipated, and the girl dispelled her remaining clones, while Kakashi approached the group.

"Now then, firstly I would like to congratulate you on passing, that test has a sixty-six percent fail rate for a reason. Secondly I want to go into our training regimen, and mission schedule for the next two months." Kakashi began, "We will start off by arriving at eight in the morning each day, five days a week that is, barring Saturday and Sunday, those days will be independent training days, or breaks depending on what you wish to do. We will stretch for an hour, then exercise. After a two to four hour exercise, increasing by an hour each month, we will go out for lunch, also make certain to eat a big breakfast every morning, then take missions. At first we'll start with two D-rank missions a day, but will work our way up to five, until I deem us ready to take on a C-rank mission. After our missions, you are dismissed, or you can join me for dinner at a random restaurant each night, mind you, I will be choosing what you will eat for dietary purposes, but I will allow you to have an input based on what you like and dislike." Kakashi explained lengthily.

"Any questions?" He asked.

When his students shook their heads, he pulled out a sealing scroll and unsealed the lunches he packed, revealing he had packed enough for everyone.

"Good, now lets eat!" He called out, while grabbing a bento box for himself.

The alarm he had set went off after a while of them eating, and getting to know eachother, when it went off, Kakashi got up and excused himself to go report back to the hokage, he stated that he would be back in a bit, and would take them on their first D-rank today. After which, he shunshined away.

* * *

**Hokage's office**

Jonin began filing into the hokage's office at twelve on the dot, as Hiruzen sat at his desk, and finished up the paperwork he had set in a separate pile he mentally labeled need-to-do-before-jonin-sensei-hearing. When he finished, he looked up from his desk, and cleared his throat. He gazed around the room before starting and smiled when he saw a familiar face much earlier than he expected.

"Now, as you all know, I must here your reports on all of your teams. Starting with team one, let's get this over with." Hiruzen stated.

"Of course hokage-sama." The jonin in charge of team one began. "Team one, fail, recommendation: throw them back into the academy, they'll probably pass next time."

"Team two, fail, recommendation: cut them from the program entirely, they are not cut out for being ninja." Another jonin said.

The jonin all listed off their teams in order, Hiruzen felt himself grow more tired as all six jonin that went listed their teams as failures, when he got to Kakashi's team, he perked up upon hearing the jonin.

"Team seven, pass, they exceeded all my expectations and showcased incredible teamwork. A testament to what I can only assume is a childhood friendship. I feel as though this team will go far." Kakashi reported.

"Team eight, pass, although barely. I'd say they all showcased an ability to work together, Sai out of deducing he can't go up against a jonin on his own, Shino out a weird form of hive respect, and Kiba out of his pack-mentality, when it came to it however, they were a lot less like a machine, and more like an awkward group of like minded individuals. Still, they succeeded in working together." Kurenai explained.

"Team ten, pass, the InoShikaCho formula continues to surpass expectations, and I'd say this years could use a little work for sure, but that's what I'm here for isn't it?" Asuma reported.

Hiruzen marked down the final team reports, and dismissed his jonin, which, as they left, placed their full reports on the hokage's desk. Kakashi left the office, and shunshined back to his team to collect them for missions.


	5. C-ranks

Chizuru finished her training session with her teammates, not deviating far from what they discussed the day before. They did their hour stretch when Kakashi arrived at eight on the dot, Kakashi then instructed them to do four laps around the training grounds, he joined in, and jogged at their pace alongside them. After the four laps, he instructed Hinata to do three more, and Chizuru to do ten more, while he and Sakura walked another lap and talked. Chizuru wasn't able to hear much, but she knew it had something to do with Sakura's training, so she didn't feel as though she should pay too much attention to it. After the extra laps, they set into push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and general physical workouts, with the common theme of Sakura doing the least, Hinata doing about double Sakura's load, and Chizuru doing a little more than twice as many as that. When they were done with physical exercising, Kakashi surprised them by grabbing out a small rubber ball. He passed it to Chizuru, who passed it to Hinata, who passed it to Sakura, who passed it back to Kakashi. When he got the ball again, he smiled from behind his mask.

"One point for me." He said.

"What?" Chizuru said dumbly.

"What do you mean 'what'? I got a point." He said, feigning innocence.

"How?" Chizuru demanded.

"You just saw, I got a point." He said, "Kakashi one, genin zero."

He tossed the ball back to Sakura, who passed it to Hinata, who passed it to Chizuru, who passed it to Sakura, who passed it to Kakashi.

"Another point." He said cheekily.

"Wait! Hang on, you only get a point if we pass it to you! Girls! No more including him, we'll get a point if we only pass it between ourselves!" Chizuru deduced.

"Aw... No fun..." Kakashi said downcast.

He passed the ball back to Hinata, who passed it to Sakura, and the three continued passing it between themselves. After ten throws, Kakashi ran in and caught the ball as Sakura passed it to Hinata.

"Three points team Kakashi, zero points team Genin."

"So it is a game of keep away! You cheat! Start the point count over now that we know that!" Chizuru shouted.

"No." Kakashi said simply, while passing the ball to Hinata.

Hinata caught the ball, and tossed it toward Chizuru. When Chizuru went to catch it, Kakashi came in again, and took the ball.

"Four-" He was cut off when Chizuru charged him for the ball.

"Enough of your shitty points!" She shouted as she threw herself at her sensei, aiming to get the ball.

"Now now Chizuru, just because I'm absolutely way better at this game than you doesn't mean you can throw a fit." Kakashi demeaned.

"I'll show you a fit!" Chizuru yelled, before poofing a few clones into existence.

Kakashi easily dodged the incoming punches and kicks from the girl and her bunshin, before he dispatched the clones with honed efficiency, and grabbed Chizuru by her arm. He held her off the ground with her arm behind her back, while he shook his head.

"You can't cheat like that, the game's between me, you, and your teammates, not fifty odd clones." Kakashi chided.

"Rules? What rules?" Chizuru shouted.

"You don't know how to play catch? What are you four?" Kakashi prodded.

"Fuck you!" Chizuru yelled, while struggling to free herself.

"Minus one point for Chizuru." Kakashi joked.

"Minus one!? Why!?" Chizuru questioned.

Kakashi stood there for a second, before he erupted with laughter. He let Chizuru go, and apologized in between laughs. When he was finished, he passed the ball to Chizuru.

"Alright fine, we will start the game over. On our way to the hokage's office to get our first mission for today, try to keep the ball away from me for as long as you can, while also sticking to just tossing it between the three of you." Kakashi said. "We should be heading out for lunch now, any requests?"

"Ichiraku!" Chizuru shouted, forgetting about her anger toward her sensei.

"I kinda want some dango." Sakura said.

"Uh... Ramen sounds good..." Hinata mumbled.

"Okay! Yakiniku Q it is!" Kakashi announced.

"What? But we had two for ramen!" Chizuru complained.

"Yes, but when including my vote we had two for dango as well, so we had to go with another option. We've all talked about going to Yakiniku yesterday, so why not do that today?" Kakashi asked.

"Alright, just be glad I like Yakiniku!" Chizuru said.

"Good, then let's get going, we still have to get to our two missions for the day." Kakashi finished.

* * *

When the group finished eating, they headed straight for the hokage's office to get their first D-rank missions. They were given a mission to pull weeds from a garden, and they completed it with ease, even when Kakashi prohibited the use of Kage Bunshin. After that, they took another mission, this time they had to paint a fence, again they completed it easily. Afterwards they all left for dinner, Sakura and Chizuru were going to eat with Kakashi, while Hinata headed for home, as her father told her that they'd be eating dinner together tonight. The next day they met up again and followed the same course through the day, but at the end of the day all three shared dinner with their sensei. The process repeated again, and again, and over the course of a couple of weeks they had fully dug into this new routine, by week three Kakashi even pushed up the schedule, and now they were doing a three hour exercise, as well as four to eight D-rank missions. Kakashi deemed their teamwork good enough to lift the ban on Kage Bunshin, and they began flying through missions. They were doing so many that the hokage actually had to start denying them access to some missions in order to allow the other genin teams a chance at doing some. By the end of the month they had eighty-eight D-ranks under their belts, unheard of for a month's work for a genin team, let alone a fresh genin team.

Kakashi expedited their training again by setting a new goal to work their way up to the second month's end goal in two weeks, to which they did, ending the second week with four hours exercise, and six more D-ranks, bringing their total to one hundred and forty D-ranks overall. Kakashi thought they were more than ready for a C-rank before he expedited their training, but now he was sure they were more than capable. And so, after a nice lunch at Ichiraku Ramen, they headed for the Hokage's Office for their first C-rank.

* * *

It was a simple mission, escort a caravan from Konoha to the capital, then return, at most team seven could expect bandits, but as of yet, two days into the mission, nothing happened. Chizuru was walking along the left side of the caravan near the back, Sakura was posted in front of her a ways down, while Hinata was on the opposite side of the caravan from Chizuru, and Kakashi took up post on the opposite side of the caravan from Sakura. They were guarding the four corners of the caravan, and swapped every few hours, when they swapped, they briefly reported to Kakashi, and got back to working. To say the least however, Chizuru was bored. She was beyond bored, to the point in which she was trying desperately to stay awake. The only bright side to it all was that Chizuru could see that the sun was starting to set, which meant they'd be setting up camp soon enough. As if spurred by her thoughts alone, the head of the caravan began to slow, and suggested resting for the night. Chizuru brightened up and went to converge with her team at the center of the caravan again, much like when they were swapping positions throughout the day. When they arrived Kakashi made to speak, but Chizuru beat him to it.

"This is sooo boring!" She whined.

"Now Chizuru, that's no way to treat a mission." Kakashi lightheartedly chided.

"This is barely a mission! I actually feel doing D-ranks would be more fun! At least then we would be doing more things in a much, much shorter time!" Chizuru shouted.

"You should know that doing C-ranks this soon after graduating is a privilege, even if the mission itself is rather... Tame..." Kakashi trailed off.

"Yeah, well I was hoping we'd get to at least fight someone! I mean c'mon! There is a full caravan, guarded only by a fresh genin team! Who wouldn't want to rob that?" Chizuru called out.

"A mission without hassle reflects greatly on our teams ability to get higher ranking missions." Kakashi explained.

"Yeah well a mission with hassle handled well reflects better!" Chizuru argued.

"You got me there." Kakashi admitted, "But enough of this, I think we should divvy out tasks already."

"Fine..." Chizuru muttered.

"Okay! Sakura, you're on water duty tonight, Hinata, you're on firewood duty, and Chizuru you're on food gathering." Kakashi said, "I'll set up camp, we'll eat, then we'll take turns with night watch starting with me. Any objections?"

His students shook their heads, then headed in separate directions to complete their tasks. When they converged again on their campsite, Chizuru got to work cooking the rabbits she caught. They ate in peace, and went to bed. Kakashi passed watch off to Chizuru, who passed watch to Sakura, who passed it to Hinata. When the sun rose the next day, they all packed up, and got ready to head out. The caravan was moving an hour after team seven finished getting ready, so in the meantime they decided to do some light training. The caravan set out with Hinata and Kakashi guarding either side of the front, and Sakura and Chizuru in the back. They were traveling for not even an hour when Chizuru noticed something off. She began to idly look around the forest they were walking in and she saw what seemed to be shadows moving back and forward, she looked up to the sun and thanked kami that it was time to swap information with her team, so she moved to the center of the caravan.

"Anything to report?" Kakashi asked as they neared the center.

"Nothing." Sakura said.

"Nothing from me either..." Hinata mumbled.

"Actually sensei, I thought I saw something out in the forest during my watch." Chizuru revealed quietly.

"Really? Any idea what it was?" Kakashi asked.

"I'm not sure, all I know was that it was alive, it could have been just an animal." Chizuru sighed.

"Well, what is your gut saying?" Kakashi asked.

"Oh! It's saying 'feed me'." Chizuru said.

"No... I mean... What did you feel when you saw the shadows... Or did you have a bad feeling in your stomach, not related to hunger, when you saw the shadows?" Kakashi asked.

"Oh right... Hmm..." Chizuru thought for a moment, then a light bulb seemed to go off as her face morphed into one of recognition. "Yeah I did. I had this... Like it felt, low? No it felt like it was empty but the empty went down.... Or..." Chizuru trailed off.

"What you're describing, my cute little student, is a pit in your stomach. Whatever you saw unnerved you, maybe even worried you, which in the ninja world, can't be good." Kakashi said.

"Oh! Cool!" Chizuru said.

"Now that you mention it though, it does feel like something is off about today, so, we will return to the same posts this time, if what I think is going to happen will happen, well, then it'll be best to nip it in the bud before we move on." Kakashi said.

"Yes sensei." The three genin said in unison.

They returned to their places amongst the caravan, and Chizuru looked into the woods to find those shadows again, but she couldn't see them. They continued reporting every hour, and returning to the same posts, until the sun began to set, and the caravan had to stop for the night. They again set off and gathered supplies, Hinata on cooking and hunting, Sakura on gathering wood, Chizuru on setting up camp, and Kakashi on gathering water. They ate, got ready for bed and Hinata was first for watch. She woke Sakura for watch next, and Sakura woke Chizuru. Chizuru began her watch by hopping into a tree and summoning fifteen kage bunshin, all of which she sent out to patrol the area. She grabbed out a book on fuuinjutsu to read, but soon the pit in her gut returned. She closed her book and peered around the clearing, before summoning another ten bunshin. The bunshin set up a perimeter around the camp, with one of the points being hers to watch when suddenly bunshin's memories flooded into her.

* * *

The kage bunshin split from the tree Chizuru was sitting in and one of them traveled southwest, the same direction Chizuru saw the shadows. The bunshin was on the solo southwestbound mission, the other fourteen were split with two heading further north to scout, three others in solo missions going southeast, northeast, and northwest. The last nine were divided into three teams of three covering south, east and west. The bunshin on the southwestbound mission soon came to a stop when she felt a presence not far off from her location. Instantly alert the clone readied herself to relay the information back to Chizuru when suddenly the tree she was hiding behind was cut all the way through, luckily the blade narrowly missed the bunshin, and she leapt away. _I can't reveal boss' kage bunshin no jutsu to the enemy, so I have to escape... _The bunshin thought.

"Nice reaction girly, too bad you're in for a lot more than just that." A man called out from the forest in front of her.

He stepped out of the shadows and revealed himself, he was a tall man wearing the standard Kiri chunin flak, he also wore a Kiri hitai-ate on his head. The bunshin made note that he had nothing on him that could have slashed the tree, and readied for another to step in at any moment. When the other ninja finally showed themselves, it was in the form of a sneak attack from behind. The bunshin leapt away from the slash the blue haired assailant made, and twisted itself out of the way of the kunai the original man threw.

"You missed Chojuro! I guess we'll have to show you how it's done!" A new voice called.

The first Kiri-nin ran toward the bunshin and another one leapt down from the tree tops to engage as well, the bunshin dodged toward the blue haired Kiri-nin, Chojuro, and used his momentary confusion as to why the enemy was leaping at him to dodge an attack to throw kunai in his direction. The boy dodged and the bunshin was able to flee in the direction the boy left open with his dodge.

"Oh no you don't!" The first Kiri-nin called. "Yugeru now!"

"On it!" Yugeru called back, then flashed through some hand signs, the bunshin knew this wouldn't be good, so she decided now was as good a time as any, and threw some kunai with exploding tags toward the Kiri-nin.

"Noseki, Yugeru watch out!" Chojuro called out.

Yugeru cancelled his jutsu and Noseki tackled him to the ground as the kunai soared over their heads and exploded on contact with the trees behind them with a large enough force to topple them.

The bunshin escaped their view, and hid behind another tree before releasing herself to give the information back to Chizuru.

* * *

The information transferred itself to Chizuru and the rest of the clones, and they began to converge on the camp again. Chizuru summoned another dozen clones to set up a wider perimeter, and leapt down to Kakashi's tent.

"Sensei." Chizuru said urgently.

"Chizuru? What's up?" Kakashi woke up instantly and sat up to see his student.

"We have trouble, I'm going to go wake up Hinata, you get Sakura, we need to discuss this immediately."

"Of course." Kakashi said, while getting up.

They went separate ways and woke up the other members of team seven before converging at the center of the campsite.

"What's going on, why are we awake so early?" Sakura asked.

"I sent some kage bunshin out to patrol when my watch started, and I got that same pit-in-my-gut feeling. So I summoned a few more to set up a perimeter around the camp, and then a few minutes later one of my clones dispelled themselves." Chizuru began. "The bunshin fought with three Kiri-nin, two of which were chunin, and the other is a mystery, he did have a large flat sword though..." Chizuru explained.

"Was it bandaged, and did it have two curved indentations near its base?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah actually, how'd you know?" Chizuru asked.

"Not good, this mission just became a B-rank at minimum, and an S-rank if this swordsman is the real deal." Kakashi said, "That sword is a special weapon designed only for a member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist to wield, and now we are going up against him." Kakashi stated.

"A member of the Seven Swordsmen?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, and if they're who I think they are, we're going to have to get to the capital by morning, the caravan's comfort comes second now, and their survival is our top priority. Chizuru!" Kakashi called.

"Yes sensei?" She asked.

"Henge your bunshin into the caravan members and members of our team, they will act as a distraction, we will also need to take the goods and store them in storage seals, as well as store the caravan members in prisoner seals. Get as many clones on it as you can, we need to be fast!" Kakashi called.

"Alright!" Chizuru shouted then summoned two hundred bunshin to get onto the task, while the bunshin she had summoned before henged into members of the caravan, team seven, and some henged into animals and went back to being a part of the perimeter.

"Good, now get to stretching, we need to be limber if we're going to be running as fast and as long as we can."

The camp was now in a frenzy as the bunshin started packing everything, and everyone, away. After a few minutes the clearing finally emptied, all that was left were the henged bunshin and caravan wagons. The fake caravan began to set out on the road as the sun began to peak over the horizon, and the real team seven rushed off directly toward the capital.

* * *

**Hokage's Office Same Time**

Hiruzen was sitting at his desk attending to the paperwork of the day, when his office window opened, and in stepped his student Jiraiya. The old man sighed and put his work to the side as he prepared for the conversation he was about to have.

"Sensei." Jiraiya greeted.

"It's good to see you Jiraiya." Hiruzen said.

"Of course it is, it is always a good day when you can meet with the gallant toad sage!" Jiraiya showboated.

"I hope you came here to report, not waste my time Jiraiya." Hiruzen sighed.

"Waste your time?" Jiraiya questioned, "Is it really a waste of your time to meet with your favorite former student?"

"I guess not, but if there is nothing to report then you must leave, I have _paperwork_ to get to." Hiruzen spat the out his most despised nemesis' name.

"Fine, I'll tell ya why I'm here." Jiraiya relented, before straightening his back and entering his report-making mode. "The handover of my spy network to Itachi has been completed, he has met all of the necessary contacts, as well as established himself as the new boss."

"Good, good. I will tell you now the kage bunshin Itachi left in the village for the purpose of doing D-ranks as well as the Yamanaka led therapy sessions with his brother have been fairing well, and I expect he sent with you a scroll with multiple imprisoned clones to take up the posts the old ones are at?" Hiruzen said.

"Of course, he was more than ready to send in the fresh clones, eager, if I were to guess, to see to it that he repair not only his relationship with the villagers, but also more importantly his brother." Jiraiya concluded.

"I would hope so, it's not every day you can mend a rift such as that, but it seems to be moving forward well." Hiruzen said.

"Has Tsunade's medic nin program begun yet?" Jiraiya questioned.

"Of course, right on schedule too, it seems that she piqued the interest of quite a few of our young shinobi." Hiruzen explained.

"Good. Kami knows she needed to achieve her dream if she was to begin recovering from her past." Jiraiya sighed.

"If there is nothing else to report, I'd say you're good to get going Jiraiya." Hiruzen spoke after a moment of silence.

"Alright sensei." Jiraiya shrugged, then left through the window.

* * *

**Forest in Hi no Kuni  
**

The Kiri-nin landed in the clearing where the caravan once was and began signing to one another their findings, thoughts, and plans, when they seemingly decided to move toward the caravan. A bunshin had been watching them from a safe distance, and dispelled itself to alert the other bunshin. As the Kiri-nin neared the caravan, a group of bunshin henged as the full team seven, with Kakashi being replaced by a generic Konoha-nin, as to not tip the Kiri-nin off too much to the trap, landed in between the caravan and the Kiri-nin.

"Konoha-nin! We request that you stand down! We have no quarrel with you, and we will not harm the merchants, as we are only here for one object!" The head Kiri-nin, Yugeru, called out.

"Likely story." The bunshin-jonin drawled out.

"Please, we do not seek to worsen relations with Konoha, we just wish to retrieve an artifact that is rightfully ours." Chojuro pleaded.

"It is our job to protect the caravan members and the caravan's goods, so I'm sorry but we will have to decline." The bunshin-jonin apologized, while getting into a defensive stance.

"I see. Then we are sorry for what we must do." Yugeru said.

The two groups leapt at each other at that, all the while more Chizuru-bunshin were closing in on the area. The Kiri-nin were forced to fall back when the bunshin team seven threw a massive amount of explosive kunai flying their way. Although none of the kunai hit their mark they succeeded in pushing the Kiri-nin into one of Chizuru's traps. The trap activated and a hail of kunai flew from within the trees toward the Kiri-nin, they dodged, but activated another trap in the process. This time the trees surrounding the group exploded at the base and began to fall toward them, again forcing them to dodge. Once out of danger, the Kiri-nin leapt toward the bunshin team seven to fight them. When they cleaved into the team, and the team dispersed, the Kiri-nin was immediately thrown into high alert.

"They sent clones to fight us?" Noseki questioned.

"It would seem so, we don't know where they'll come from now, so be on the lookout." Yugeru ordered.

The Kiri-nin cautiously advanced toward the caravan, and, upon arriving, found it deserted. They began searching the caravan for their goal, but soon realized it was not there. When they converged in the middle of the caravan, they sensed a presence nearby, and got into defensive stances.

"You're not getting out of this unharmed I hope you know." Another bunshin called out to them, again disguised as the plain looking jonin.

When the Kiri-nin checked their surroundings in more depth they noticed they allowed themselves to get surrounded. Roughly fifty bunshin, all henged as team seven with a plain jonin, surrounded the Kiri-nin with kunai and shuriken drawn.

"I see." Was all Yugeru said.

The clones leapt into action and begun throwing their kunai and shuriken at the Kiri-nin, occasionally tossing a kunai with an exploding tag into the mix. The fight didn't last long, as the bunshin weren't necessarily strong, especially considering the fact that Chizuru had yet to learn real jutsu, but when it came to an end, the Kiri-nin looked worse for wear, and the bunshin were pretty much all dispersed. The last one dispersed when she saw the Kiri-nin turn tail and flee.

Chizuru finished her explanation to her sensei just as they reached the gate to the capital, to which he eye-smiled at her before they walked into the city after telling the gate guards their situation. Kakashi congratulated his team, and they decided to head toward an inn. They ordered enough rooms for the caravan members, and began distributing their prisoner seals to Chizuru bunshin. When the caravan members were all placed into their rooms to sleep, Kakashi ordered his genin to prepare for the trip back. They set out almost immediately.

The travel time from the capital to Konoha was roughly two days at the speed they were going, and they made it there without hassle. After Kakashi reported to the hokage a successful B-rank mission, they were given a three day break from training. When the break ended Kakashi took his team once more to get a C-rank mission from the hokage's office. This time their client was there in the building to meet them. When he was ushered into the room by the hokage's anbu, he looked the team assigned to escort him, and put his two cents in.

"This is the team meant to escort me? That one there is shorter than my grandchild, and he's probably half her age!" He complained.

The group of young shinobi looked on in anger at their client. While Chizuru silently reached for her kunai pouch. The hokage saw this and rushed to ease the situation before it got out of hand.

"Now now Tazuna-san." Hiruzen chided, "Were you never taught that insulting the shinobi hired to protect you is, and will always be, a bad idea?"


	6. Nami no Kuni :: Part 1

Team seven were making good progress towards Nami, after their meeting with the hokage, they set off to their homes to pack for the trip, and slept, they set out in the morning and a day and then some into their trip they were left with just a few hours until they were to reach Nami. Sakura was walking to the left of Tazuna, Chizuru to the right, Kakashi in the back, and Hinata walked a little bit ahead. They were all idly talking, having just finished another team-building exercise in the form of tossing a much much smaller rubber ball between the four of them, and decided to take it easy for the rest of the trip. Kakashi minutely stiffened when a puddle came into view on the road ahead, and signed to his students to be wary. Chizuru and Sakura noticed him signing and Chizuru decided to get Hinata's attention.

"Hey Tazuna." Chizuru began and watched as he turned toward her, "Are there any shinobi in Nami?"

"I doubt there would be, we don't have a shinobi village in our country like you do in Hi no Kuni, but we get the occasional shinobi passing through." He explained.

Chizuru watched as Hinata looked back to give Tazuna a thoughtful look when he explained, and signed the same caution Kakashi did to her. Hinata's eyes widened a tiny bit, but she seemingly took a deep breath and calmed her nerves. The group finally passed the puddle and made it all of ten steps past when suddenly two shinobi leapt out of it. The two were linked together via a bladed chain, and wore Kiri headbands. One of the newly revealed Kiri-nin leapt over the other, and launched himself to the side of the group, while whipping his chain in a certain way. After the Kiri-nin landed, he pulled the chain tight, along with the other, and team seven watched as Kakashi became entangled by the bladed chain, and subsequently ripped apart with a spew of gore.

"One down." One of the Kiri-nin said in a gruff voice.

After a brief moment of shock, the remaining members of team seven leapt into action, Sakura stayed back and drew a kunai to protect the bridge builder, while Chizuru and Hinata rushed forward. Hinata activated her byakugan, and threw a shuriken at the bladed chain which caught it and slammed it, and stuck it against a tree, Chizuru followed up by launching a kunai at the shuriken and stuck the chain even further to the tree by lodging the kunai in the shuriken's open middle. The two then threw themselves at the Kiri-nin and engaged in taijutsu with the now stuck shinobi. Hinata quickly disabled her opponent with her juken after jabbing all of the Kiri-nin's tenketsu. Chizuru similarly began her taijutsu bought with the other Kiri-nin and began to kick and punch her way though his defenses. After a rough kick to his chest which sent him stumbling toward the tree, he growled in frustration, and released himself from the chain, before launching himself at Sakura and Tazuna. Sakura froze as he neared, and she seemingly couldn't react when the Kiri-nin leapt over her to get to the bridge builder. The Kiri-nin slashed the bridge builder's neck, and blinked in confusion when instead of blood coming from the wound, the bridge builder and the pinkette disappeared completely. His shock was short lived as a swarm of kunai and shuriken flew in from all sides and forced him to leap to the only spot that was free, which just so happened to be in the range of Hinata's juken. Kakashi rejoined the group after Hinata disabled the second Kiri-nin and Sakura and Tazuna came out from behind the tree they were hiding behind.

"Good work everyone." Kakashi congratulated.

"What?" Tazuna yelled questioningly, "You were killed! I saw it! How did you live?"

"Kawarimi." Kakashi said simply while pointing at the broken pieces of wood that laid where his 'torn up body' once did.

"Huh." Tazuna said simply.

"Anyways, good work out there girls, Sakura you did well to hide yourself and the client while Hinata and Chizuru distracted the shinobi, nice job with the bunshin as well. Chizuru, you did a great job with distracting the Kiri-nin long enough to make sure Sakura could hide safely, but it seems you will need to work on your taijutsu style if you want to do that again, it was rather lacking." Kakashi explained, then turned toward Hinata, "And Hinata, well done, if it weren't for you, I may have needed to step in to finish things, you did amazingly well disabling the two Kiri-nin. All three of you were fantastic in the last act with forcing the Kiri-nin to leap towards Hinata." He finished.

"Thank you sensei." They all said, while bowing slightly and blushing at the praise.

"Now, Tazuna." Kakashi began, his voice taking on a new tone, "We need to talk about a few things."

"I'm sorry!" Tazuna blurted out. "If I'd known I would be assigned a team with children on it I wouldn't have come to Konoha with my mission!"

"So, you knew you'd be hunted by ninja, and lied about it to our hokage?" Kakashi asked, "If you had told him the truth, I'm sure whatever reason you had to lie could have easily have been solved."

"But we don't have the kind of money for anything higher than C-rank! Please, our nation is so poor can you please please please continue the mission?" Tazuna begged.

"Not until we know every variable." Kakashi said, "Explain."

"Okay okay!" Tazuna began, "About a year ago a man by the name of Gato came to Nami in what we though was a business venture. He began setting up shop there, and not even two months in he had bought out every business dealing with transportation on the island. We thought he would be a boon to the economy, and the daimyo was especially ecstatic to have such a man doing business on the island. Everything changed though once he took control of the ports. It started with him taxing us more and more for foreign goods, and once we stopped buying foreign foods in favor of fishing, and foreign clothes and jewelry in favor of homemade alternatives, he began sicking his guards on us. It started slow, with his goons beginning to demand money in return for their protection, and slowly grew to them being the ones we needed protection from." Tazuna explained.

"Suddenly, we lost all contact with the daimyo..." Tazuna furthered, "And the goons started doubling every day, until finally they began making examples out of those who didn't follow orders..." He trailed off.

"This Gato, could he be _the_ Gato?" Kakashi asked.

"If by _the_ Gato you mean the one that is one of the richest men in the world, then yes, that would be him..." Tazuna confirmed.

"I see... Go on." Kakashi nudged.

"The taxes the goons demanded for protection grew, and soon, when people couldn't pay with ryo, they began taking people as compensation... Men, women, and children all disappeared over the course of a few months, all that remains are those that had more ryo saved up then others, and those who are much better at running than others. Our old, our sick, and our disabled were the first to... Well... Go... Then our women were taken, and our children were taken, and soon, even our men were carted off. We believe he's putting them up for auction elsewhere, as a part of a massive human trafficking ring. But what's worse, is that that's not the only morally awful deed he's doing. He's been using us to grow and produce drugs for him to trade off, and has been using those same drugs to sedate our people. We no longer grow our own food, and rely on what few fisherman remain to catch our meals, forage in the forest for anything we can get our hands on, or we give an arm and a leg to get food from Gato... That's why I'm building a bridge... To free my people... But..." He again trailed off as his eyes misted over, and tears began to fall.

"Well, I can't risk the safety of my genin for my own wishes, so I have to consult them as to what they want to do, but I'm really sorry to hear what has happened to your country." Kakashi sighed, then turned toward his students, who were all looking at the bridge builder, teary-eyed from the story.

"We'll help out any way we can!" Chizuru shouted voice filled with sadness.

"Right!" Hinata and Sakura called out as well.

"Alright then Tazuna. Looks like you've got guards for the rest of the trip, and even for the rest of the time it takes to build your bridge." Kakashi said.

"Really?" Tazuna sniffled, then brightened at Kakashi's nod. "Oh thank you shinobi-san! Thank you all!"

"Maa, no need to mention it..." Kakashi muttered, while scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, before coughing into his fist. "Now, I need to send a message to update the hokage on the situation as well as get some anbu to take these two away to t&i for further questioning once I'm done with getting information out of them." Kakashi explained.

* * *

The group had found a fisherman in a town on the shore facing Nami that was more than willing to take them across, as he once lived in Nami, and wanted so badly for it to prosper like it once had. They arrived on the other side of the channel not long after getting on the boat, and had even passed under the massive bridge Tazuna was building. After leaving the boat the group began to make their way to Tazuna's house, they were on edge due to a steady mist that began to roll in, and none were calmed when Tazuna shakily said that mist like this was common here. They were about an hour away when suddenly a spike of chakra led Chizuru to toss a kunai into a bush not far in front of them. The group cautiously moved forward and peered into the bushes, only to find a very frightened white rabbit shaking beside the kunai that lodged itself into the ground.

"Oh no!" Chizuru said while bending down to pick the rabbit up. "I'm so sorry little one! I didn't mean to scare you!"

"Chizuru it's okay, I'm sure one of us would have done the same thing if you hadn't done it first..." Hinata tried to comfort.

Kakashi on the other hand seemed to be lost in thought when suddenly his gut seemingly dropped lower than before.

"Everyone duck!" Kakashi screamed.

The shinobi quickly fell to the floor, while Hinata pulled Tazuna down with them. Not even a second later, a massive cleaver slashed overhead, and cut through the area the group was just standing. They shakily got up, kunai drawn, and Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the figure that crouched upon the blade that was now lodged into the tree next to the bush the rabbit was in.

"Zabuza Momochi, the Kirigakure no Kijin." Kakashi growled out.

"Sharingan no Kakashi. An honor to know such a famous ninja knows my legacy too." The newly revealed Kiri-nin, Zabuza, said.

"Kids, stay back, this man is too dangerous for you to deal with, I'll take him on, you just have to protect Tazuna." Kakashi ordered.

The genin nodded at him while Kakashi turned back to Zabuza.

"We shouldn't waste any time, and just get this over with." Kakashi drawled out lazily.

"You dare mock me?" Zabuza asked, then laughed menacingly. "I'll tell you what, I'll leave you and your genin be if you pass over the bridge builder. I have no quarrel with any of you, only him." Zabuza offered.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. He has a job to do, and so do we." Kakashi said.

"Have it your way." Zabuza said while shrugging, "I hope you know your student's deaths will be on your hands then."

Kakashi narrowed his only revealed eye. Before launching a hail of kunai at the Kiri-nin.

"Getting straight into it I see." Zabuza joked, while dodging the kunai.

The two threw themselves at eachother after Zabuza pulled his blade out of the tree, the Kiri-nin slashed horizontally towards Kakashi, to which the white haired man bent backwards out of the blade's way, and pulled out a kunai to stab Zabuza with. Zabuza deftly dodged the strike and the two pulled away from eachother. Eyeing one another for an opening, Kakashi moved first. He tossed the kunai in his hand directly at the Kiri-nin, while pulling two handfuls of shuriken from his weapons pouch. He threw them to the sides of the Kiri-nin forcing him to move backwards instead of to the side, and then launched himself forwards ready to slash Zabuza with another kunai. Zabuza reacted in kind by bringing his blade above his head and slamming it down on Kakashi's kunai as the Konoha-nin was forced to parry the strike. The two were locked together until Zabuza, having enough of the stalemate, kicked Kakashi away.  


"You're going to need to do better than that if you wish to win, _sharingan no Kakashi._ " Zabuza teased.

"I see, you leave me no choice... Well, it's your funeral." Kakashi relented, and pulled his hitai-ate up, revealing his sharingan.

The two flew at eachother again, this time Kakashi anticipating Zabuza's moves, and sliding behind the Kiri-nin when an upwards vertical slash nearly bisected him. Kakashi slashed at Zabuza and nicked his shoulder with the kunai before leaping away as another horizontal slash was sent his way. The two again paused to measure eachother up, before launching once more into combat. From the sidelines the three genin were enamored by the combat, and were seemingly too into it to be guarding their client, this notion was dispelled however, when a mizu bunshin leapt from the trees above them to slash at the bridge builder, and got immediately dispelled into water when a trap Chizuru set up sprung, launching kunai at it from below. Zabuza noticed this and grumbled, when suddenly he noticed an opening. Kakashi also watch the bunshin's attack and was slightly distracted, so Zabuza capitalized on this and rushed to Kakashi's side while launching shuriken at the Konoha-nin. Kakashi reacted almost too late, and deflected the shuriken with his own, before he lunged at Zabuza. He parried another vertical slash, and used his momentum to launch a kick into the Kiri-nin's gut, which made Zabuza fly backwards and eventually end up on the beach next to the channel team seven just traversed.  


"Wrong move." The Kiri-nin chided.

He got to his feet and began to flash through some hand seals, before releasing a powerful Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu toward Kakashi. Kakashi was forced to dodge, and only barely did so thanks to his sharingan's ability to read hand seals quicker. Kakashi ran through some hand seals of his own before releasing a fireball from his mouth in the form of a Gokakyu no Jutsu the Kiri-nin summoned a few mizu bunshin and they all leapt out of the way of the attack. The bunshin charged Kakashi while Zabuza himself strengthened his Kirigakure no Jutsu which thickened the fog tremendously. Kakashi had some trouble finding the mizu bunshin, but they had no trouble finding him. He was attacked on all sides from the five summoned bunshin and only barely was he able to dispel them all without getting slashed. He ran out onto the water to finish Zabuza, when suddenly the Kiri-nin was behind him. He parried another strike made by the Kubikiribocho, and leapt backwards. The two stood on the water's surface for a moment studying one another, before rushing at one another again. Kakashi attempted to slide behind the Kiri-nin like before when an upwards vertical slash was made, but this time when he slashed at the enemy shinobi, Zabuza dispelled into water. Eyes widening for a moment, Kakashi was forced to parry another slash when suddenly the Kiri-nin lunged at him with his fist. What Kakashi failed to realize was that Zabuza had completed a series of hand seals moments before and when the punch was revealed to be a feint, he wasn't able to react when the water below him surged upwards to encompass him. Zabuza laughed darkly at his apparent victory, before looking down at Kakashi.

"You failed. I am now free to do to your students as I please, order them to stand down, or run, if you want, just know they will die if they stand between me and my paycheck." Zabuza explained.

"Kids! Get out of here!" Kakashi called out, "I can't escape from this! And he's too far out of your league to fight on your own! Leave now or you'll die!" He finished.

"No way Kakashi-sensei!" Chizuru yelled, "We will not leave you behind!"

"Right!" Hinata and Sakura agreed.

The three ignored Kakashi's calls of protest as they quickly came up with a plan, and no sooner than they did, did a mizu bunshin try to cut them in half. The bunshin's blade seemingly collided with thin air, before the entire clone was thrown back and dispelled. Kakashi realized Chizuru had put a barrier up and thanked kami for her prowess in fuinjutsu. The two other genin stood on guard around Tazuna, while Chizuru grabbed and unfolded a fuma shuriken from within her cloak. She got into a proper throwing stance, and launched the object at Zabuza at an insane speed. The Kiri-nin watched as it neared him and moved his head to the side as it passed him. What he wasn't prepared for however was for the shuriken to poof into a Chizuru-bunshin, and launch a kick at the back of his head. The kick destabilized him just enough so that he released his Suiro no Jutsu and subsequently, Kakashi. The Kiri-nin had no time to react as Kakashi released a volley of shuriken at his back, all of which slashed wounds into it, but none stuck. Zabuza only barely parried a strike from the Konoha-nin when he lunged in with a kunai, and again the two had to leap away from one another. Zabuza was fed up at this point and decided to release another Suiryudan no Jutsu at Kakashi, but Kakashi, with his sharingan active, copied the jutsu and released one at the exact same time as the Kiri-nin. The two attacks bashed into one another, but Kakashi's proved stronger, as his raced past the now massive spray of water and towards Zabuza. Zabuza attempted to dodge the attack but was swept up in it and launched back to the shoreline. Kakashi flashed through a final set of hand seals as he prepared to end the fight, and formed a Chidori in his right hand. He launched himself toward the now recovering Kiri-nin and prepared to end his life, when suddenly a few senbon flew out of a nearby tree and lodged themselves into the Kiri-nin's neck. Killing him instantly. Kakashi slid to a halt, and released his jutsu before walking up to the Kiri-nin and checking his pulse.

"He's dead." Kakashi sighed in relief. "Whoever did this, you should come out now."

"That would be me." An effeminate voice called down from a tree.

A Kiri-nin, wearing a green haori and hunter-nin mask, leapt down next to Zabuza and picked up his sword, before holstering it behind their back. they looked at Kakashi before seemingly smiling behind their mask.

"Thank you Konoha-nin. I have been hunting this criminal down for quite a while, now I can finally return with his head to Kirigakure. I will be taking his corpse away for now, so that your genin do not have to see the process." The hunter-nin explained.

Kakashi nodded at the hunter-nin before covering his sharingan back up, and heading for his team. When they converged, they all silently shared a moment, before heading toward Tazuna's again. Once there, they were greeted by Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, and were allowed to stay for as long as it took for the bridge to get finished. Kakashi was about to respond when the events from earlier caught up with him, and he collapsed to the floor.

"Kakashi-sensei!" His genin yelled.

Hinata activated her byakugan as quick as she could, and sighed in relief before informing her teammates that he was okay, just suffering from chakra exhaustion. They carried Kakashi to one of the spare bedrooms with the guidance of Tsunami, before helping the woman make dinner, and going to sleep.

* * *

Kakashi rose from his laying position and sat up, the towel on his forehead dropping into his lap as he did so. He looked around the room he found himself in, and snapped his head to the door that was opening. When he saw that it was Sakura entering the room, he relaxed.

"Kakashi-sensei! You're awake!" Sakura called out, which led to Hinata and Chizuru bursting through the door behind her.

"Kakashi-sensei!" They greeted.

"Yo." He said lazily, "How long have I been out?"

"Only since yesterday, it's just past noon now." Sakura answered.

"How are you feeling sensei?" Hinata asked.

"Better, but still awful." He explained. "It's a good thing you're all here though, 'cause I have something to tell you."

"What is it sensei?" Chizuru asked.

"I don't think Zabuza is dead." He said bluntly.

"What!?" The three genin called out.

"But sensei! You said he was dead! You even checked yourself!" Chizuru shouted.

"I did. But that was before I put two and two together, you see, senbon are hardly a weapon in the sense that a shuriken or a kunai is, its practically impossible to kill someone with, let alone a jonin-level shinobi." He explained, "That coupled with the fact that the hunter-nin took the body away from the place of death, rather than telling you guys to turn away, leads me to believe that Zabuza is alive and well, and that the hunter-nin was an accomplice." Kakashi finished.

"Wait so... We'll have to fight him again!? And you're in no shape to fight, so it'll only be us..." Chizuru complained.

"True, I'm not in any shape to fight, right now that is. However, I believe that we have about a week before Zabuza recovers from both the fight, and the near-death state the hunter-nin put him in. And by then, I'll be back to full strength. For now though, I'll have to train you guys even harder than before." He explained.

"How? You're still injured, you shouldn't even get out of bed!" Sakura tried to reason with him.

"It's alright, I'll just need some crutches, and I'll be more than fine pointing out what you have to do, it's not like I have to join your training." He waved off their concerns.

"If you say so..." Sakura said.

"Right, now can one of you please get me some crutches, its time to train!" Kakashi said jovially.

* * *

The four trudged out into the forest surrounding Tazuna's house, and immediately set themselves into their stretches. After about twenty minutes of pre-training warmups Kakashi called them together to explain what they would be doing.

"Alright everyone, today we are going to do tree walking exercises." He began then saw Hinata raise her hand.

"Um Kakashi-sensei... Chizuru and I have already mastered the tree walking exercise..." She mumbled.

"Yeah! And the water walking too!" Chizuru added.

"Really? Well, what about you Sakura?" Kakashi asked.

"Huh? Oh, well I also learned those... I kinda was forced to learn them when hanging out with Ino during the times her father was training her." She said then shrugged.

"Well that makes things easier." Kakashi said, then reached into one of his pockets, and pulled out four small pieces of paper. "Here, each one of you take one of these. These are chakra induction papers, they can tell us what your nature affinities are. If it crumples you have a lightning affinity, if it cuts itself in half, you have a wind affinity, and so on and so forth. All you have to do is channel some chakra into the paper and," He channeled chakra into the remaining paper to which it crumpled. "Hinata, how about you go first?"

Hinata nodded and channeled some chakra into her paper, which began damp, then dried and turned to dust.

"Two affinities? That's rare, it seems as you have both a water and earth affinity." Kakashi explained. "Sakura?"

Sakura did the same thing and the paper only dried and turned to dust.

"An earth affinity, nice to see you both have that in common. Now Chizuru, care to make it three for three?" He asked.

Chizuru smiled at him, then channeled chakra into her own paper, and watched as it split into three parts, one lit on fire, one crumpled, and one turned black.

"Uh... Kakashi-sensei I think my paper's broken..." Chizuru complained.

"I... I think so too... Here try again." He said while pulling out another one.

She pumped her chakra into it again, and the same thing happened, it split into three, one lit on fire, one crumpled, and the other turned black.

"Am I doing it wrong?" She asked dejectedly.

"N-no. I'm sure you're doing it right... Just... Try one more time." Kakashi said while passing her yet another one.

She did it again, and again the same thing happened. Kakashi grabbed his head in astonishment. _Four affinities? FOUR AFFINITIES!? One of them an unknown, most likely a kekkei genkai. But what type of kekkei genkai turns the paper black, wait, it's not just black, it's wet too, ink? Is that ink? Wait a minute..._

"Hinata activate your byakugan." He ordered, to which she did. "Now, tell me, what does the black paper look like."

"It has a sorta glow to it, like it's infused with chakra, but its wet?" Hinata explained.

"Good, now what does this look like?" Kakashi asked while unsealing some chakra ink.

"The exact same sensei." Hinata confirmed.

"Alright. Chizuru, it seems as though you not only have four affinities, but one of them is a new kekkei genkai. You seemingly have the ability to morph your chakra into chakra ink, meaning theoretically you can make seals just by pumping chakra into something." Kakashi explained, "The closest thing to this that I know of to this is the Kuchiyose no Jutsu but that requires both blood and chakra, as well as a contract, or an overly specific and complicated sealing matrix, like the yondaime's hiraishin, to preform."

"Is that a good thing? Wait, what are the other three?" Chizuru asked.

"Yes, its a very good thing, fuinjutsu masters would figuratively and, in some cases, literally kill for such a kekkei genkai. And the other three affinities are lighting, wind, and fire." Kakashi answered.

"A new kekkei genkai... Huh. I guess that means I get to name it doesn't it?" Chizuru asked.

"Yep." Kakashi said while eye smiling.

"Awesome! I think I know the perfect name! We can call it fuinton!" Chizuru shouted excitedly.

"Fuinton no Chizuru, I can see it in the bingo books now." Kakashi joked, "I like it."

"Hell yeah! Hinata did you hear? We're kekkei genkai buddies!" Chizuru called out, while rushing over to hug the bluenette.

"I'm very happy for you... That is for the kekkei genkai..." Hinata mumbled while Chizuru spun her around in a massive hug.

"Okay! Now, to begin training you to use jutsu of your elemental affinities, we first have to do what is called the leaf exercise." Kakashi explained.

"Leaf exercise? Like what we did at the academy?" Chizuru questioned.

"Kinda, but no, that is a weakened form of the actual leaf exercises. These ones that I will be teaching you are much harder to do. First grab a leaf." He began, to which his students followed up by grabbing a leaf each. "Good. Now Hinata, try to soak the leaf like you did the chakra paper, Sakura, try to turn your leaf to dust, and Chizuru you have to cut your leaf in two." He finished.

His students immediately set out to do their respective leaf exercises, while Kakashi traveled back to Tazuna's house to walk him to the bridge, and take the first shift in guarding him.


	7. Nami no Kuni :: Part 2

Kakashi returned to his students after a long day of watching Tazuna and his workers on the bridge only to find a scene of total chaos. Sakura and Hinata were diligently pumping chakra into their leaves on one side of the clearing, on the other side of the clearing Chizuru was doing the same, or rather, fifty Chizuru's were doing the same, while fifty more practiced taijutsu, and another ten were reading up on fuinjutsu theory. Kakashi looked in awe at the scene, before he composed himself a moment later, and cleared his throat.

"Yo." He called lazily.

"Welcome back Kakashi-sensei!" Chizuru shouted from somewhere within the horde of bunshin.

"How have you all been progressing?" He asked.

"Horribly sensei..." Chizuru muttered once she found her way to Kakashi.

"I think I almost have it down sensei!" Sakura called out while pumping her chakra into her leaf with renewed vigor.

"Um... I don't think I quite get it but... I might be making progress..." Hinata mumbled.

"Maa I don't think you all need to worry too much about it, this exercise is difficult as is, let alone for newly minted genin." He reassured.

"But Kakashi-sensei! How else are we gonna be able to help you against the Kiri-nin?" Chizuru whined.

"If I get my way, you won't need to help me with Zabuza, but instead the three of you can fight the hunter-nin together." Kakashi said.

"But-" Chizuru began.

"No buts. Are we understood?" Kakashi clarified.

"Yes sensei." His three students drawled out.

"Good, now I heard from Tazuna that Tsunami's cooking is amazing, and that tonight is no exception, so I'd recommend heading straight there to wash up and eat." Kakashi sidetracked.

"Yes sensei!" His students called as they began to rush away, he stopped Chizuru as she tried to run past him by grabbing her by the shoulder.

"Chizuru I want you to stay back for a moment." Kakashi said.

"But... Fine." Chizuru began to protest, but realized that if she just stayed quiet she'd sooner be eating.

"Good. Now Can you please tell me what's up with the bunshin?" Kakashi asked.

"Huh? Oh they're helping me train!" Chizuru exclaimed.

"Really? How so?" Kakashi asked.

"You don't know sensei? They send their memories to me when I dispel them, and if I train with them I can learn everything way way way faster!" Chizuru shouted excitedly.

"Huh. I never would have used such a method, but then again, seeing as how you have a nearly unlimited supply of chakra, it is, well, as you would put it, 'way way way' more efficient." Kakashi joked.

"Oi!" Chizuru exclaimed.

"How about dispelling them and us heading back to Tazuna's?" Kakashi asked while pointing his thumb behind him at the bunshin horde.

"Uh... Well you see... I think I've been training with them for too long, and with as many as there are, I was just gonna wait until I was about to sleep..." Chizuru muttered.

"Why's that?" Kakashi asked.

"Well... If I dispel them now, I will get anything from a massive headache, to just passing out from the amount of memories I will be taking in..." Chizuru explained hesitantly.

"Really?" Kakashi questioned, then put on a 'thinking face'. "Hmm, well, how about you dispel them in groups of, I don't know, ten?"

Chizuru took on her own thinking face, she tilted her head, and scrunched up her nose as if deep in thought, then, suddenly, her eyes brightened, her head straightened, and a massive smile plastered itself on her face.

"You're a genius sensei!" She called out, then turned to her bunshin. "Oi!! New orders! Everyone stop what you're doing and get together in groups of ten!"

Kakashi washed in barely hid amusement as the bunshin scrambled together and formed their separate groups, as Chizuru walked between them and ordered more specific ones to move places. When it was all said and done, Chizuru walked back up to Kakashi.

"Alright! Every group should line up one in front of the other and when I give the order, the first group in front of me will dispel! Then once that group is dispelled, the group behind them will count to twenty before dispelling, and the group behind them will do the same once they dispel and-" Chizuru cut herself off, "I mean, you get the picture right?" She asked.

"Right!" The now 'organized' horde called out in unison.

"Good! Now group one! GO!" She shouted.

The bunshin began dispelling, while Kakashi and Chizuru began to make their way back to Tazuna's however, conversation didn't pick up again until the last group of Chizuru-bunshin dispelled, and by then they were almost there.

"Well the bunshin are done." Chizuru absently stated.

"Well, what did you get done with today?" Kakashi asked.

"Nothing much... My fuinjutsu training is stalling because we're entering a 'theory-heavy segment' and my taijutsu has stalled since I don't have a style of my own, but rather a style I made to counter Hinata's juken... And the leaf exercise... Well, I don't even want to tell you how slow that progress is going..." She explained.

"Hmm... It sounds to me like you need an actual teacher with you now... I can't help you with fuinjutsu, as you've gone further than I have in those studies... Taijutsu would have to wait until I get a little better... And someone else can teach you more... But, hey, tell me what you've tried doing with the leaf exercise so far?" Kakashi asked.

"Huh? Oh, well I've tried to use my chakra to cut the leaf. Both ways I've tried. Hell half of my bunshin were working on one way, and the other were working on the other... Why?" Chizuru asked.

"Well, do you feel as though doing it that way has helped, or?" Kakashi half explained.

"No, but... Wait. If I don't do it either of those ways then... What way is there to do it?" Chizuru asked.

"I'm not sure, I've never really been a futon ninjutsu type. But I think this might help." Kakashi began, "When I first began training my lightning affinity I couldn't really wrap my head around how exactly I was supposed to crumple paper with chakra, but then I was hit with inspiration when I watched my sensei crumple up some of his notes for a book he was writing. I thought, 'huh, if I could do that with my chakra, enclose around the center of the leaf with it, and not just focus on the leaf itself crumpling but instead the action, then maybe, just maybe, I can do it'." Kakashi explained, then watched as his student's face lit up.

"Kakashi-sensei! You're so smart! I've got it now!" Chizuru called out, then grabbed a leaf off of the nearest tree to her.

"Think about it sensei, when you tear paper, what do you have to do?" Chizuru asked, a smug smile on her face.

"Well, you would have to grab two sides, then move one one way, and the other the other way. Now let me guess, you're going to attempt to do that with chakra?" Kakashi asked.

"In a way yes, but to do it the traditional way would actually be harder than what I was thinking, to do it that way I would need to pump my chakra in more than one direction, and at fine points, but I don't think that that would be efficient in training my wind affinity, instead I think it would be better to do what I was originally doing, but this time, both ways, at the same time!" Chizuru finished.

"Do you think it would work?" Kakashi asked.

"Well, only one way to find out!" Chizuru shouted, then pumped her chakra into the leaf while focusing with all her might on rubbing the two flows against one another.

She stood there focusing on her leaf, and flowing constant chakra for about thirty seconds when finally, a small tear formed on the top part of the leaf.

"Yatta!" Chizuru exclaimed, "Sensei! Look! Look! I did it!"

"Good job." Kakashi congratulated while patting Chizuru's head, "I'm very proud of you."

"Thank you sensei!" Chizuru called out.

* * *

The next day, Kakashi again set out to watch Tazuna while his students trained. The three were once again in the clearing that they claimed yesterday, and were setting about to doing their daily stretches, and getting to their exercises, when Chizuru decided to intervene.

"Hey guys!" Chizuru called out.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, while Hinata gave her full attention.

"I learned something on my way back to Tazuna's from Kakashi." She then pulled a leaf out of her pocket and focused her chakra into it the same way as she did the day before, and the two other girls watched as the leaf got a tiny tear in it.

"Woah!" Sakura exclaimed.

"How did you do that Chizuru-chan?" Hinata asked.

"Wait, before I tell you how I did it, let me tell you how I came up with it." Chizuru began, "To come up with this I had to think, 'well, how do things normally tear', to which I remembered that to rip a piece of paper you have to move both parts away from one another, so I took that concept and modified it. Now I just run two separate channels of chakra against one another in order get the same 'rip effect'." She explained.

"So like... You're saying a good way to learn this exercise is to take from real world examples of what the intended result is, and apply that to chakra?" Sakura asked.

"Well yeah, but not as fancily as you put it..." Chizuru muttered.

"Well then I can't wait to get started on that today!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Hell yeah!" Chizuru shouted, then poofed a couple hundred bunshin into existence.

"Uh guys?" Hinata asked, getting the others attention. "What about stretches and exercising?"

"Oh right." Chizuru said.

The three girls set off to complete their morning exercises while the Chizuru-bunshin went about and got into their training groups ninety on taijutsu, ninety on the leaf exercise, ten on further calligraphy training, and ten working on fuinjutsu theory. Chizuru finished her exercises first, and moved onto fighting with her bunshin, she would improve her taijutsu by herself if she could, and the first step to improvement is finding out what you did wrong, at least, that's what the yondaime wrote a lot about in the books. Hinata and Sakura finished their morning routines at around the same time, and quickly got into their leaf exercises. Sakura took what Chizuru said to heart, and began to think of ways to get her leaf to crumble, she seemingly came to her conclusion when she set about to pumping chakra into the leaf again. Meanwhile, Hinata was doing just the same, but she had the ace of a byakugan to watch her leaf as she furthered her progress. After a couple of hours, a Chizuru-bunshin popped itself out of existence and soon after the sound of roughly ninety leafs being torn could be heard.

"Yatta!" Chizuru called out, then turned to her leaf exercise bunshin, "Alright! Remember how we dispelled yesterday? You all get to doing that while I create replacements!"

With a poof, another ninety bunshin burst into the clearing, and set off to complete the leaf exercise the way Chizuru mentally ordered it to be done. She turned back to her taijutsu partners and got back into her stance, before once more flying at them. Sakura watched in shock at the bunshin swarm repeatedly tearing leaves, quicker and quicker, it seemed, as each group of ten dispersed. Inspired by the almost mesmerizing scene, Sakura doubled down her efforts and continued pumping chakra that felt stiff into the leaf, while, at the same time, pumping out chakra that felt flowy. Sakura watched as the edges of her leaf started browning, before they fell of the leaf and turned to dust. Excited by the development, Sakura continued what she was trying until the entire leaf was gone, before she grabbed another. Hinata, who was struggling a bit more with the concept of soaking a leaf, eventually found out that the chakra she should pump the leaf full of should be fluid in nature, not stiff in any way. She was the last of the three to complete the exercise, and dampen her whole leaf, but she felt proud nonetheless. The three continued for another couple of hours, with a break in the middle for some lunch that they caught themselves, before doubling down their efforts. When Kakashi returned at dinnertime, the three were more beat than they were the day before, but they were nonetheless happy to see him.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Chizuru greeted excitedly.

"Yo." He called back.

"Kakashi-sensei, we all completed the leaf exercise!" Sakura excited, but tiredly, called to him as the three approached.

"Really now?" Kakashi said with genuine curiosity.

"You betcha sensei!" Chizuru said happily, "It's all because of your lesson to me yesterday that I was able to push them towards finding their own answer to their exercise!"

"Good job Chizuru." Kakashi said proudly.

"Ne Kakashi-sensei, what's our next lesson?" Chizuru asked excitedly.

"Well before we get to any more lessons, we should head back to Tazuna's for dinner, but I guess I'll tell you what's on tomorrow's agenda." He paused for a moment to make sure they were all listening, then began again, "Tomorrow you three be learning a jutsu each."

The three girls' eyes widened at the prospect of learning what Chizuru would have called a 'super awesome powerful new jutsu', and they all three seemed to smile brighter as they thought more on it.

"Ne Kakashi-sensei?" Chizuru broke the excited silence, "What jutsu will we learn huh huh?"

"Well, my cute little students, you'll all be learning something different from one another, but I guess I'll tell you what they are. Chizuru, you'll be learning a move I copied off a Suna-nin I fought with in the third war, it's called Futon: Daitoppa. It's an offensive jutsu that can really help out against say, I don't know, a certain Kirigakure no Jutsu?" Kakashi explained, then turned toward Hinata.

"Hinata, you'll be learning the Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu, another offensive attack, I learned this one in the third war as well, but not from an allied shinobi, but instead, an enemy-nin, well an enemy Kiri-nin to be precise." He explained, then turned to Sakura. "Sakura, you'll be learning a technique I think will be beneficial for all of us, the Doton: Doryuheki, this is a defensive jutsu which will allow for us, or more specifically, you, to hide in case a jutsu or senbon comes flying your way."

"Those all sound so cool!" Chizuru exclaimed excitedly.

"Maa I guess they do. But anyways, dispel your bunshin Chizuru, we're heading for Tazuna's now." Kakashi ordered, to which Chizuru poofed a bunshin into existence and dispelled it, not feeling the will to shout at all of her bunshin this time, and the group set off when the first ten dispelled themselves.

* * *

The next day Kakashi sent a kage bunshin in his stead to protect Tazuna on the bridge, and set out to teaching his students their respective techniques. They finished their daily routines, including Kakashi, who did a 'more-strenuous-than-Chizuru's' recovery routine, which he finished before everyone else finished theirs, they then gathered in a circle around the center of the clearing, and Kakashi got to work showcasing each technique.

"Now, Chizuru, watch closely as I preform the hand seals for this jutsu." He ordered, then slowly crawled through the hand seals, before he finished, and released a massive gust of wind at a nearby tree, which toppled the tree over.

"Woah! Alright sensei, I won't let you down!" She shouted before creating ten bunshin to help her memorize the hand seals quicker.

"Now, Hinata, activate your byakugan and watch closely what I do." He watched her byakugan flare up, and slowly went through the hand seals before taking a deep breath in and releasing it with a large blast of water at another nearby tree, which effectively pierced a hole all the way through it.

"I will do my best sensei." Hinata said, before she too began to work on memorizing the hand seals.

"Sakura, your turn." He said while turning to her. "Watch closely."

He again slowly went through the hand seals for the respective jutsu, before slamming his hands on the ground and raising a wall of earth in between them and the forest. He watched as Sakura nodded silently, before she too slid into memorizing the hand seals. He began to travel around the group as they practiced, and was not surprised when Chizuru popped her ten bunshin, and replaced them with one hundred others, all of which were spread into teams of ten and sent into the forest to practice their daitoppas. She began to approach Kakashi seemingly buzzing with energy, to which he acted like he was paying attention to his other students, which he was, he noticed Sakura and Hinata finalizing their studying of the hand seals given to them, and felt proud that his students were taking this whole situation seriously. When he turned to Chizuru again she was standing in front of him with a bright smile on her face.

"What is it Chizuru?" He asked.

"Can you help me with my taijutsu training today sensei?" She asked hopefully.

"Sure Chizuru, I can help you with that. Let's head that way a bit so we can spar." Kakashi said, while pointing to the other end of the clearing.

"Yes sensei." Chizuru chirped, then walked with him to the area he pointed to.

"Alright Chizuru, get into your stance." He ordered.

He watched her ready herself, and took in her stance in full detail for the first time. She stood in what seemed to be a modified academy stance, lighter on her feet than what the academy taught, she even seemed to bounce slightly with her heels lifting off the ground ever so slightly occasionally. He took note of all that, and looked back to her face as he got into his own stance, he watched her eyes harden, but flow from side to side, as well as up and down, scanning the area in front of her.

"We will begin the spar now, just know, I will attempt to get a solid idea of your fighting style, so come at me with all you've got." Kakashi explained.

Kakashi rushed in toward Chizuru, and watched as she dodged a strike he swung toward her center mass, he made sure to watch her foot placement during the dodge and noticed they had smoothly fallen into another sturdy placement, before he swung out again, this time hoping to feint and catch her with a kick. She dodged the initial attack, and when the kick came in, she surprised Kakashi by ducking under it and slamming her fist into the lower half of his leg. He would have been thrown off balance if he wasn't a jonin, but he caught himself and leapt away from Chizuru. Suddenly she was on the attack, she threw herself toward him, landed on one foot just in front of him, before pivoting to the side, and bringing a kick toward his side. He dodged, and watched as she caught herself, and flew at him again, this time going for an uppercut. He dodged again, but found himself stunned when she smoothly flowed from the uppercut into giving him an elbow to the chest. He leapt away from her, and called the spar when he saw her approaching for another bout.

"That's enough for now Chizuru, I think I understand what your style is and how to improve it, the only problem is, is that I'm not the right jonin for the job." He finished sheepishly.

"What? There's no way a ninja as awesome as you can't do that." Chizuru complained.

"Maa I hate to say it, but what I said is true, I can up your routine for the next few days, get you into pristine shape, but other than that, the only person I know who can help you with your taijutsu is back in Konoha." Kakashi said.

"Aw... That sucks... Well, at least I can get to more physical training if you have a new routine for me." Chizuru said.

"Good, oh, and by the way, your new routine is triple what your old routine is." Kakashi said with an eye smile.

"What!? There's no way that's the new routine! You have to be joking!" Chizuru shouted.

"I'm not joking, now get to it, or the routine will include dodging kunai tomorrow." Kakashi announced.

"What!? That can't be legal!" Chizuru exclaimed.

"It is, you're my soldier, and I get to train you however I wish, now, get to it." Kakashi said evilly.

"Fine..." She drawled out.

Kakashi watched as she began to fall into the new exercises and sighed mentally, _She's going to hate me for this for a while, but it's worth it if she's going to have to train with **him**_. Kakashi shuddered as an image of green spandex floated into his mind, and then dread set over him as he thought of his student wearing such an awful outfit. _If he ever, **EVER** gets the idea to give her one of those abominations he calls clothing, I will neuter him_. Kakashi thought darkly.

He turned to his other students and saw them progressing with their studies, what with Hinata actually achieving a small stream, albeit weak, stream of water, and Sakura slamming her hands on the ground and getting a small mound to rise up a bit away from her. He looked out into the woods to see if he could find any of the Chizuru-bunshin to see how they were progressing, and he sweat dropped at the sound of a tree collapsing in the distance. _Right..._ He thought. _She would have enough chakra to make any jutsu as powerful as I show her right off the bat... Wouldn't she..._ He sighed and made to following his own exercise routine.

* * *

Chizuru woke up early the next morning with a headache and sore muscles, however, that was the least of her worries, she woke up in what seemed to be a torn up clearing, and not the room she was staying in at Tazuna's. Suddenly however, the night's memories came back to her, and her nose wrinkled in anger as she thought about what Inari said about all of her teammates dying, and about how she didn't know suffering. She may have let her anger flare too much, but she still felt as though he deserved the yelling at she gave him. She sat up from where she slept and looked around the clearing she had gone to to 'blow off steam' and felt herself sweat drop at the state it was in. There were trees torn up and toppled over going out in every direction, while the ground was torn up because of the spar she had with a couple hundred of her her bunshin. Chizuru was drained, she sat against the roots of a tree she toppled the night before, and just stared off into the distance.

Her silence was disturbed by the sound of a twig snapping, at which, she swung her head in the direction it came. What she saw was a black haired girl, who appeared to be slightly older than her, wearing a sleeveless pink kimono. The two of them locked eyes for a second, before the black-haired girl broke the silence.

"Um... Is everything all right? This clearing doesn't look to be in the best shape..." She said while looking at the mess.

"Huh? Oh right. Yeah I'm fine, just got carried away training last night..." Chizuru responded while scratching the back of her neck in embarrassment.

"Training? So are you a ninja?" The other girl asked.

"Sure am! Name's Chizuru, what's yours?" Chizuru chirped.

"Haku." The black haired girl responded.

"Nice to meet you Haku! Wanna sit down and talk for a bit?" Chizuru called out.

"I'm sorry I can't, I have to find some herbs for a friend that got hurt." Haku explained.

"Really? Well, how about I help you?" Chizuru asked.

"You'll help me with that?" Haku asked.

"Yeah!" Chizuru said excitedly, while getting up.

"Alright, well, these are the herbs I'm collecting..." After showing the herbs to Chizuru the two set off to find as many as they could, and eventually conversation started up again.

"Why do you train so hard Chizuru?" Haku asked.

"Huh?" Chizuru questioned.

"You seem strong enough, so... Do you train for yourself, or others?" Haku furthered.

"I never really thought about why I train, at first I trained because Jiji allowed me to go to the academy, but then I started training to become the strongest kunoichi I could..." Chizuru explained.

"I see... Well, if you were to ask me, I think training for oneself is not the way to get stronger, but when you train to protect those you care about, those you love, only then can you become truly strong." Haku explained.

"I never thought about it that way..." Chizuru muttered.

"Do you have anyone you care about Chizuru?" Haku asked.

"Lots! I have Jiji, Baachan, Shizune, Kakashi-sensei, Hinata-chan, Sakura, Ino, Shika, Choji, old man Teuchi, and his daughter Ayame too!" Chizuru listed off, to which Haku giggled.

"I see, well, don't you want to protect them? Can't your training be used to make sure they don't get hurt? You don't want them to get hurt do you?" Haku questioned.

"I don't want them to get hurt!" Chizuru blurted out. "I-I... Well, I think you're right... If I train for them, then maybe, just maybe I can be the strongest kunoichi... In order to protect them... No. I **will** become the strongest kunoichi! In order to protect them!" Chizuru said with renewed vigor.

"Good. I hope to hear your name amongst the legends in the future." Haku said, as if about ready to leave, she turned toward Chizuru to say something else when Chizuru spoke first.

"You know... Back when I was a kid, things were rough, and I didn't have many friends... But I think now, that i have the friends I gained... Would you like to be my friend too Haku?" Chizuru said.

"I would like that Chizuru, but I hope you know, you still are a kid." She joked.

"No way! Not like when I was younger! Back then I pulled pranks all the time and got chased out of shops! They'd say things like 'Get the brat out of here!' or 'We can't let him destroy our business!' and I'd paint their shop bright orange the next day! Now I act much more like an adult than a kid!" Chizuru explained.

"You said 'him' just a minute ago..." Haku said, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"I-I did?" Chizuru said while going wide-eyed, "I meant 'her', definitely 'her', not him, m-must have tripped over my words!" Chizuru explained before laughing nervously.

"Your reaction now, could it be... Are you... Could you be like me?" Haku asked.

"Like you?" Chizuru asked while tilting her head.

"Like... Nothing... I must get going..." Haku said before turning to leave, not before Chizuru realized what she was trying to say, and gasped loudly.

"You mean there's others like me? I'm not the only one?" Chizuru asked excitedly. "Ne Haku-chan?"

"Yes Chizuru?" Haku asked while turning around slowly.

"Thank you for teaching me there's more to life than just training for myself, and that there's more people living life like me..." She said while running over to give Haku a hug.

"I... Thank you Chizuru..." Haku said awkwardly, then continued the same way. "You're the first person to call me Haku-chan you know..."

"Really? Well, they should call you it more often! This is who you are, and you shouldn't deal with people who wouldn't want you to be happy!" Chizuru shouted.

"But I... I told him not to call me that..." Haku muttered.

"What? Why? You're such a cute girl, why wouldn't you want people, no, your friends, to call you by such?" Chizuru questioned.

"Because... Well, because I don't deserve it!" Haku shouted, causing Chizuru to stiffen.

"I'm a monster that's why! I don't deserve to be happy with what I am! I should live the rest of my life as a boy, like **he** would have wanted!" Haku shouted angrily, before she fell to the ground and started sobbing.

"Haku-chan! Are you okay?" Chizuru asked while hugging the girl tighter.

"I-I... I just want to be happy..." Haku sobbed out.

"I want you to be happy too Haku-chan! So please, help me help you be happy, we're friends! It's the least I can do!" Chizuru exclaimed through her own tears that started falling due to her friend's unhappiness.

"I... Fine." Haku said after a few moments of quiet sobbing. "I'll tell you why I'm here..." She muttered, then took a deep breath.

"It all started when I was a kid... I was born in a snowy village in Mizu no Kuni to a family of farmers, well, my father was a farmer all his life, but my mother was a member of a clan from Kirigakure known as the Yuki clan... We have a kekkei genkai that allows us to use hyoton, and... Well... Do you know about what's happened in Mizu no Kuni lately?" Haku paused to ask.

"No... But to think, we're both kekkei genkai buddies too..." Chizuru muttered.

"Well... Wait, really? What's yours?" Haku asked.

"I have a new one, it's called fuinton." Chizuru explained.

"Fuinton? What can that do?" She asked.

"Well it turns my chakra directly into sealing ink." Chizuru said simply.

"That can be really powerful..." Haku said, before taking another deep breath and continuing her story.

"Mizu no Kuni had recently ended a war with the other great elemental nations when her people seemingly overnight began to fear kekkei genkai wielders, even our kage fell victim to the fearmongering, and soon after, what is known as the bloodline purges began. People banded together to kill those with kekkei genkai and soon it came to our town..." Haku stared off in the distance for a moment before continuing. "I was just a kid... I just unlocked my kekkei genkai and was playing around with some ice, when I showed it to my mom... She was angry that I was doing that, but I can tell now, she was just more scared that I was doing it, than mad at me... What I didn't know was that **he** was watching too... My father gathered up the villagers in a mob, and brought them to our home, where he killed my mother, and lunged for me right after... I-I... My hyoton flared up and... I killed him! I killed him, and all the villagers in my house with one attack! I didn't even feel sad that I killed them, I was glad to get away, I'm... I'm a monster..." She said, before full on crying again.

The two girls huddled together and hugged one another tightly as they both cried against one another. They sat there in the clearing for a while, the only sound being their sobs, and sniffles. Chizuru was the first to speak, but she started slowly.

"I... I don't think you're a monster Haku-chan..." Chizuru said softly, "If I had the strength to when I was younger, I probably would have done the same thing to the mobs that chases me around town..."

"You... You had mobs after you when you were younger too? Why?" Haku asked.

"I-I don't know... All I do know is that Jiji always ended up by my side after I got chased, and he always was there for me... That friend of yours... Is he there for you?" Chizuru asked.

"I... Don't know..." Haku answered. "I've always thought of myself as a tool for him to achieve his dreams... But I don't know anymore..."

"Did he tell you that?" Chizuru asked.

"Well... No... I kinda thought that myself..." Haku revealed.

"Did he save you from Mizu no Kuni, is that why you're here?" Chizuru furthered.

"He did... He saved me and brought me along with him, we've been traveling ever since, trying to make enough money for him to achieve his dream..." Haku told.

"Then, it seems to me like he's more than just a person using you as a tool, but I can't know for sure... You should talk with him." Chizuru explained.

"But... What if he does see me like that..." Haku asked.

"Then he's not your friend, and I'll show him why he should care, for you!" Chizuru exclaimed.

The two sat in silence at the exclamation and enjoyed each other's company. After an hour of sitting together, they both were interrupted by their stomachs growling. They laughed at it, and Chizuru got to her feet, before offering her hand to Haku to lift her from the ground.

"We should meet here again tomorrow." Chizuru said.

"I don't know if I can... I still have to take care of my friend..." Haku stated.

"Won't you need more herbs tomorrow?" Chizuru asked.

"Well yeah... But-" Haku began.

"No buts! I'll help you collect more, then we can at least talk! See you tomorrow!" She shouted while running back towards Tazuna's.

"I... Fine... See you tomorrow Chizuru-chan!" Haku called to the retreating girl, before she too turned and left.


	8. Nami no Kuni :: Part 3

Chizuru made her way to the clearing her team trained at and got to her daily exercises. She was just about to start the more intensive ones, when Kakashi and the rest of her team showed up. She nodded in greeting before getting back to exercising, and was quickly joined by the rest of them. When it came to training that day, she showed off what she could do with the jutsu Kakashi gave her to learn, to which Kakashi eye-smiled at her.

"Good work Chizuru. I believe with that level of proficiency you're ready for the next exercise." He offered.

"Really? What is it?" Chizuru chirped happily.

"Well, think of it like this. What's one weakness that shinobi have when it comes to using jutsu? More specifically, what's a weakness I've shown to exploit?" Kakashi asked.

"Uh..." Chizuru drawled then scrunched her face up, seemingly deep in thought, before it seemed to click. She couldn't find the right words to fit what she wanted to describe yet, so she opted to making a few hand seals and looking at Kakashi to see if she was right.

"Exactly. The biggest weakness a shinobi can have is showing all of their cards, and using too many, or even just one hand seal, is enough to tip off your opponent to what is coming up." Kakashi explained. "Today, i will be helping you through the process of shortening the required hand seals it takes to use your daitoppa."

"Like how I did it for the academy three?" Chizuru asked.

"Yes, but it's a lot harder to do it with elemental jutsu. In fact, that's why people have created something called 'one-handed hand seals' which, well, explains itself, but it's really useful. I've known a few people who can use one-handed hand seals, but the most noteworthy would have to be the Yondaime." Kakashi explained.

"Whoa! When do we get started?" Chizuru exclaimed.

"Well, how about now?" Kakashi suggested.

Kakashi ran her through the hand signs for the jutsu again, but when he got to the last one, he didn't do it, however he still released a daitoppa at a nearby tree.

"The concept is simple." He began, "Remove a hand seal, and manipulate your chakra the way the seal would normally." He explained.

"What?" Chizuru asked dumbly. "Wait... So like how with the academy three, I just preformed the jutsu by feeling like I was preforming them?"

"You shortened the academy three without knowing how you were doing it?" Kakashi asked, to which Chizuru scratched the back of her head in embarrassment, causing Kakashi to sigh, "Okay, when you use a hand seal, what it does is shape your chakra for you, it manipulates your chakra in a way that you need it to, without you needing to do it." Kakashi furthered.

"So if I was to learn how to control my chakra in the way that I have accidentally been doing it with hand seals, without the hand seals, I can potentially not use hand seals in general?" Chizuru asked.

"Well, yes and no." Kakashi said simply. "There's a lot more to it, but the beginning concept lines up with that. You see, hand seals in tandem, shape chakra into something completely different, and just knowing how to shape your chakra that way isn't enough. You must know how to shape it one way, and then shape it another way while maintaining that earlier shape, and again, and again, until you have the final product. For this very reason, there aren't many people who can do fully sealless jutsu, but instead they opt into doing one-hand seals, which allows them to only have to do half the work required when shaping chakra." Kakashi finished.

"Huh. I never thought of it that way..." Chizuru muttered.

"No one really does, but when they do, it opens so many doors that were once hidden to them." Kakashi assured.

"Yeah!" Chizuru exclaimed, visibly brightening up. "I'll be the first master of sealless jutsu, you'd better believe it!"

"I won't hold you to that, but I will help you all that I can." Kakashi began, "Now, the first step to removing a hand seal is always attempting a one-hand hand seal, it makes the transition to no hand seal infinitely faster."

"Right!" Chizuru called out, before looking over at Sakura and Hinata, who were just finishing their exercises. "Ne, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Don't worry about them, they'll learn this too, once they finish becoming proficient in their own jutsu, I wont pick favorites, or leave anyone out." Kakashi explained, having guessed what Chizuru was going to ask. "But let's get back on track, preform the last hand seal for the daitoppa." He instructed.

Chizuru formed the seal, and Kakashi grabbed both of her hands, before separating one of them from the other, and correcting the finger positioning to fit into a proper one-hand version of it.

"This is the first step, summon as many bunshin as you want, and practice this sign with both hands, try to increase the speed in which you can form that sign correctly, then we will move onto shaping chakra after you get that one down." Kakashi ordered.

Chizuru got to summoning her bunshin, while her team began to settle again into their jutsu training. Kakashi went off to help all of them when he could, and noticed that Hinata seemed to be the closest of the other two to getting her jutsu down. Sakura was lagging behind, but Kakashi made sure to encourage her to try her best whenever he could. The day progressed, and their training started to wrap up. Chizuru was about to begin chakra molding when Kakashi called an end of training for the day. The girl began dispelling her bunshin, and the team headed for Tazuna's. They enjoyed a nice dinner, and settled in for bed.

* * *

**Earlier that Day, Somewhere in Nami no Kuni**

Haku made her way toward the compound her and Zabuza were staying at, but stopped a little way away from the building Zabuza's staying in. She noticed the door was open, and Gato and two thugs were talking with Zabuza, suddenly, one of the thugs swung at Zabuza, but before Haku could react the Kiri-nin easily deflected the blade with a kunai. The thugs and Gato made a hasty escape after that, while Haku watched their movements. She snuck closer to the three men to get a better idea of what they were saying, and ended up hiding around a corner in the compound listening in on their conversation.

"That bastard, I should chop him up for even trying to fight back while on his death bed!" The swordsman who swung at Zabuza spat.

"I'll slice him up too, just for messing with you, don't you worry!" The other goon growled out.

"We can't go slicing him 'til the job's done you morons!" Gato reprimanded.

"Sorry boss..." The two goons drawled in unison.

"Good. The bastard's lucky we're not going to kill him 'til he battles those Konoha-nin on the bridge." Gato spat out in a low voice.

_They're planning something stupid._ Haku silently deadpanned at the idiocy of the three men she was spying on. _Too bad they can't keep their mouths shut for long enough to get it done..._

Haku slid her mask on, leapt out from her hiding place, and charged down the three. She launched a volley of senbon at the two swordsmen, which staggered them long enough for her to get in close. When she got in range of their blades, they tried to lash out at her, but met thin air instead. They couldn't even react when they were knocked out from behind. Haku turned to Gato, flashed behind him, and knocked him out too, before she gathered the three up, and brought them to Zabuza.

"Haku, what is this?" Zabuza asked.

"Zabuza-sama." Haku began curtly, "I believe I recently overheard something that would interest you."

"Go on." Zabuza allowed.

"I noticed these three hastily escape from this building, so I decided to shadow them for a little. It didn't take long for them to idiotically proclaim that you were to be killed on the bridge, after you finished off the Konoha-nin of course." Haku reported.

"Did they now?" Zabuza asked, a new venom finding it's way into his voice.

"N-No! We would never do such a thing!" Gato called out, having woke up in the middle of the conversation.

"Don't worry Gato, I believe you." Zabuza began.

"Y-You do?" Gato asked hopefully.

"No." Zabuza said simply, releasing a violent wave of killing intent.

"Please don't hurt me! I can give you anything you want! Please!" Gato shouted.

"You violated the contract Gato, it is now within my rights to take your head." Zabuza threatened, while lowering the amount of killing intent he was pushing. "But if you come up with a good enough reason, I may spare your pathetic life."

"Oh thank you! Thank you!" Gato shouted.

"Zabuza-sama, a word?" Haku interrupted.

"My acquaintance and I will return in a minute, if you so much as move a hair, I will know, and you don't want to know what will happen after that, do you?" Zabuza threatened, a terrifying smile creeping its way onto his face.

The two left the building, shut the door, and Zabuza proceeded to lean against the door. He didn't try to show it, but a pained look flashed across his face as he leaned. Haku sighed, glanced around, then cleared her throat.

"Zabuza-sama." She began, "I believe we should cut our losses with Gato, collect our money from him ourselves, and leave this awful place."

"This is unlike you Haku, you aren't normally this concise." Zabuza remarked.

"I apologize Zabuza-sama, but I cannot allow you to be harmed in the battle that is surely to come if we stay here... I do not know if can distract the three genin like we originally believed..." Haku continued.

"What intel did you gather?" Zabuza probed.

"The three genin seem to be learning jutsu, well, at least one of them is learning a jutsu, but I doubt their sensei would stunt the training of the two others by focusing on one." Haku reasoned, "The jutsu the genin I observed was a futon jutsu of sorts, probably C-rank in nature, but she has the ability to turn it into a near A-rank jutsu just based off of performance alone. I know not of the other two, but if they have similar ability, or have varied jutsu, I don't know how well I could hold them off." Haku finished.

"A lot of 'what ifs'... Too many for my liking..." Zabuza reasoned, a frown showed on his face briefly, only noticeable in the slight twitch of his eyes, and the morphing of his mask. "The midget has already shown himself to be careless, and has made our stay here no longer necessary, so an evacuation seems reasonable." Zabuza said.

"I will collect our reward from Gato's-" Haku began, then Zabuza lifted his finger to silence her.

"We will wait until I am recovered, then we will take our leave." Zabuza began, "Reward in hand of course."

"What will happen to him." Haku asked.

"Simple, we'll let the town get their justice. For now we will just keep him monitored. As for his goons, well, we can let the Konoha-nin sort that out." Zabuza finished.

"Of course." Haku said.

"Now, inject the little shit with some non-lethal poison, while I take care of his minions." Zabuza instructed.

* * *

**The next Day, Chizuru's Training Area**

Chizuru was in the middle of a light morning exercise when Haku walked out into the clearing, today she was wearing a, suspiciously familiar to Chizuru, green haori. Chizuru pushed down her suspicions and smiled brightly at Haku, before running over and enveloping the girl a massive hug.

"Haku! How are you today?" Chizuru chirped happily.

"I'm good." Haku answered, then took on a more serious expression, "But I have to apologize to you..."

"What for?" Chizuru asked, while understanding it had something to do with the haori Haku was wearing.

"I haven't told you the whole truth." Haku began.

"We only just met, I can wait for the whole truth! That's what friends do!" Chizuru put in.

"Thanks Chizuru." Haku said, "But, well, this truth needs to be revealed..." Haku muttered.

"Alright," Chizuru began, then sat down and motioned for Haku to do the same, "I'm all ears."

"So..." Haku began, then took a deep breath, and let it go in a sigh. "I was the hunter nin that took Zabuza-sama away... And I... Well, he... Is kinda the friend I told you about..." She struggled to admit.

"Then I guess we're supposed to enemies..." Chizuru said, which caused Haku's breath to hitch, "But I don't feel like we're enemies... Or... I don't feel like your enemy."

Haku looked hopefully at Chizuru and smiled. She took another deep breath and continued what she was saying.

"We aren't enemies, at least, not anymore... Zabuza-sama and I are leaving Nami, and aren't going to fight with your team." Haku announced.

"Y-You're leaving?" Chizuru asked tearfully.

"I-" Haku began, overwhelmed by Chizuru's reaction. "We have to, Gato was going to try to kill us, so we decided to cut our losses, steal our pay, and give the man to the town to get their revenge on him."

"But... That means we won't see eachother..." Chizuru mumbled. "How can we talk to eachother then?"

"I... Didn't think about that..." Haku began, "But... Well I guess we could always write to one another... But... I'm going to be traveling with Zabuza-sama, and you won't really be able to write me back, even if I get your address..." Haku ran through more scenarios in her head, before she too started to tear up.

"I don't want to lose the only friend I've made..." Haku said tearfully.

"I don't want to lose you either!" Chizuru exclaimed.

They sat in silence for a while before Chizuru finally started thinking about solutions herself. Suddenly Chizuru got to her feet a smile plastered on her face.

"I know exactly what we can do!" Chizuru shouted.

"What?" Haku asked, her hope returning.

"You and Zabuza should join Konoha! That way the two of you can stop running around, get paid for being awesome shinobi, I can introduce you to all of my friends, and we all can be friends together!" Chizuru ranted, before pulling Haku to her feet. "Tzunade-baachan can help you the same way she did me, oh she's a medic-nin by the way, and you can even get to know Shizune-nee! We can eat ramen together at Ichiraku, or eat with Shika and Choji at Yakiniku! Doesn't that sound fun?"

"It does... But..." Haku started sadly, "It can't be that easy..."

"Of course it can! It may be harder than I'm putting it, but I know Jiji would let **you** in in a heartbeat! It may take some convincing, or even a contract of some kind to get Zabuza in, but I know it can be done!" Chizuru exclaimed, "But, even if I'm wrong, and this is **the** hardest thing in the world to get done, I'll be there with you, fighting with you, to get you what you deserve! I won't let any of my friends live unhappy lives!" Chizuru finished.

"I-I don't know what to say..." Haku offered embarrassedly.

"Well," Chizuru said before smiling brightly, "You can start by saying 'yes'."

"Alright." Haku said, smiling as well.

"I gotta go train with my team, so uh..." Chizuru said awkwardly.

"Don't worry about me, I'll convince Zabuza-sama to take us to Konoha." Haku began, "Go train with your team."

"Bye Haku-chan!" Chizuru called while running toward the clearing team seven usually occupied.

"Bye Chizuru-chan!" Haku called as well.

* * *

**Tazuna's House, The Next Day**

A knock on the door attracted everyone's attention, they had just settled down for breakfast, and were getting ready to eat, when it happened. Kakashi stood first, something felt off about the door, but he knew whoever was behind the door didn't have any ill intention for those inside, but they did have their guard up. Zabuza motioned for his students to form up around their hosts and stepped toward the door. He cursed the lack of a peephole, every shinobi knew a peephole could be what saves you from a kunai to the face, but civilians didn't really think that way. _Troublesome._ Kakashi silently parroted. He cracked open the door to peak out, making certain to keep his distance in case an attack happened. What he saw was a teenage girl, wearing the same haori the hunter-nin wore he noted, and Zabuza. _Wait... Zabuza!_ Kakashi jerked away from the door, pulled some kunai out of his pouch, and waited for the Kiri-nin to break down the door. After three tense minutes, the door remained on its hinges, and after another three Kakashi began to question the Kiri-nin's motives, by the tenth minute of waiting, Zabuza called out to Kakashi.

"I take it your student has both failed to mention the current situation beforehand, and _continues_ to fail at doing so." Zabuza remarks.

"What student? And what situation?" Kakashi calls back.

"That would be Chizuru-chan, Hatake-san." Haku responds.

"What about her, and you still haven't clarified the situation." Kakashi asked, while glancing back at his student, who seemed to have a guilty look in her eyes.

"Sorry Kakashi-sensei, I kinda, sorta..." She began, before lowering her voice into a whisper, "Told Haku that she would definitely, totally, be able to become a shinobi in our village..." When she finished, Kakashi looked dumbfoundedly at the door, and then back at Chizuru.

"What?" He asked plainly.

"Its okay though, they're no longer our enemies! Gato tried to betray them, and then they turned on Gato! They were just going to leave Nami, but Haku and I had become friends and we didn't want to leave eachother, and well, I remembered how nice Jiji was and told Haku all about how I will convince him to bring her in, and..." Chizuru trailed off as she noticed Kakashi seemingly grow more and more weary as she went on.

"If you don't mind, Hatake, we could come in and clear this up." Zabuza offered diplomatically.

"Fine." Kakashi relented, knowing full well Zabuza placed the initiative straight into his hands if this was a real attack.

The two Kiri-nin walked into the home, causing Tazuna to stiffen at the back of the group. Zabuza walked right behind Haku, and seemed to radiate a protective aura while around her. Kakashi took notice of his defensiveness, and lowered his kunai. The two were seemingly mentally conversing as the tension began to ebb while minute movements were made. Kakashi eventually pocketed his kunai, and Zabuza's stature slackened in such a way only Kakashi could notice.

"It seems as though we have a lot to talk about, we were just about to eat too, so please, join us." Kakashi offered with an eye-smile, although it wasn't his place to offer, nobody could argue with two fully trained shinobi.

"Of course." Zabuza replied curtly.

Everyone slowly returned to their seats to eat, but didn't grab any food until the conversation picked up again.

"So, Chizuru your training is being upped for not reporting this sooner, also, you will not get a vote on where we will be eating for three months." Kakashi reprimanded.

"Noooo!" Chizuru exclaimed.

"Now, I take it you and Haku are seeking to join Konoha?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes, although I know it will not be an easy process for me, I believe it would be in our best interests." Zabuza confirmed.

"Explain." Kakashi pushed, causing Zabuza to sigh.

"Haku has never had any friends of her own, and when she made a friend, one who just so happened to be our temporary enemy, I didn't want to see her lose that." Zabuza began, "When Gato betrayed us, making it so you were no longer our enemies, and Haku came to me to explain what all your student promised, I knew it was better for her to live in a village over living on the road with me. I already messed up a while ago, what with running every which way with her until we ended here, but I believe it's time for us to settle down." Zabuza furthered.

Everyone was eating now, while Kakashi mulled over what Zabuza had said, and it wasn't until breakfast was finishing up when Kakashi gave his reply.

"You will have to explain everything in detail to the Hokage when we get to Konoha, but I believe your heart is in the right place." Kakashi said.

"I understand." Zabuza replied.

"Now, what happened to Gato?" Kakashi questioned.

"Little bastard tried betraying us, so, we got him first, put him under for a while, then gave him to the town so they could get vengeance. We took his wealth, gave what was not owed to us back to the town, which was Haku's idea, and came here." Zabuza explained.

"And the army of goons?" Kakashi asked.

"The town will have to pay you for a B-ranked bandit camp clearing." Zabuza said.

"Perfect... I didn't want them to get their hands bloody this early, but... It has to be done I guess." Kakashi though aloud, then cleared his throat. "Your first mission as honorary Konoha-nin, which I can only grant temporarily, will be to assist in a B-rank bandit camp clearing."

"We accept this mission." Zabuza affirmed.

The Jonin got to their feet, followed close after by the other shinobi, and left, leaving a stunned family in their wake.

* * *

"The reason a bandit amp clearing mission is important, my cute little genin, is because it allows you all to be ready to take a human life if necessary." Kakashi explained to his genin as they walked through town, following the Kiri-nin. "Although genin as young as you hardly ever have to kill, in this case I think things have escalated to a point in which this is necessary. We have had two C-ranks, mind you our **only** two C-ranks, that have spiraled into a more dangerous situation." Kakashi furthered.

"But no one's been hurt!" Sakura protested.

"No one's been hurt, **yet**." Kakashi put in, "We have now had a B-rank, and a A-rank mission. This next B-rank will also be in your files, and if you haven't gained the attention of the other nations before, you will now. Three high ranking missions under your belt, and not a scratch to show for it? Insane to think of. You will become targets in the future, and I just want you all to be prepared. Do you get it?" Kakashi finished.

"Yes sensei." His three genin chirped in unison.

"Good. Now, cheer up, we will make sure to allow those who want to run to drop their weapons and leave the country, we won't kill anyone not willingly fighting back." Kakashi said seriously.

"That's good..." Hinata muttered.

The group fell into a contemplative silence as they continued to follow Zabuza, their attention was drawn to the center of town briefly, where they saw a crowd huddled around a broken body that was lifted on a pole. They quickly averted their gaze, and soon the group was out of the town. Hinata was tense with fear of failing the mission, and her sensei, while Sakura seemed to be reconsidering her whole career. Chizuru seemed to be trying to accept this new reality, while Haku seemed reluctant, but willing, to preform the necessary task. Zabuza and Kakashi exchanged quick glances every now and then when they could, but they didn't try to ease the young shinobi's worries, knowing that this could very well be the mission that makes one of them quit.

They arrived at the camp within the hour, and were quick to mask their presences while the jonin went over the plan, and Zabuza toured them around the compound. When they were all seemingly ready, the group made their way to the center of the camp. They traveled in the shadows, and made certain to dodge any group of goons while they made their way in. It didn't take long for them to reach the camp's center, and when they arrived, they slunk out of the shadows and made their presence known. Kakashi cast a 'megaphone' jutsu, and spoke to the camp.

" **Attention, soldiers of Gato's militia! Your boss is dead! Put down your arms and surrender, or face the might of trained Konoha-nin!** " Kakashi called out.

A crowd had already been forming before he spoke, but when he finished, the crowd had doubled fifteen times over, and it seemed the entirety of Gato's forces were surrounding them. Zabuza and Kakashi were releasing waves of killer intent toward the army, and it seemed to be working, that was until one of them spoke up.

"You killed the boss? Yeah right! A bluff like that wont work! You're the ones who need to surrender! You're outnumbered a million to one!" An arrogant man shouted, who seemed to be lacking in ability to think by the way he was unphased by the waves of killer intent.

His cries got the other less affected to join in, and soon, like dominoes falling, the entire crowd was chanting for their blood, or making crude remarks about the girls in the group. The air became tenser and tenser, while the will to fight within the group mounted, suddenly, the first goon to speak up charged at the group, and all hell broke loose.

"They had their chance." Was all Kakashi said, before he threw himself at the man, kunai in hand.

Zabuza charged off in his own direction, while the girls felt a wave of fear wash over them at their superiors leaving them, but soon it turned into resolve as a goon neared their position. The battle was on.

Haku launched herself into the fray while forming an ice blade, and the three genin of team seven spread out, and stood their ground. They were charged by a lone swordsman, who seemingly broke from the three more advanced shinobi's grasps, and they launched themselves at him. Hinata leapt in for a frontal attack, to which he responded by slashing at her, she dodged backwards, revealing her move to be a feint. Chizuru charged in from one side, shuriken drawn, and leapt into the air above the man. She launched her shuriken at his back, while Sakura came in from the other side and chucked her own kunai at the man's legs. All of the attacks struck, and a desperate glean shone in the man's eyes as he swung wildly. Hinata stepped in at this, ducked under a horizontal strike from his blade, and jabbed her balm into his chest, in a fatal strike. The man quickly keeled over, and seemed to go under cardiac arrest. Chizuru noticed Hinata freeze, and saw another man break from the larger group, he was charging at the Hyuga heiress with a mace. Chizuru charged the man and formed the hand seals required for the daitoppa, before releasing a powerful one at him. He was immediately launched backwards, his body folding like a lawn chair, while a sickening crunch sounded his demise. Another man broke from the fray and just like Hinata, Chizuru froze up after her kill, Sakura was forced to act, tears stung her eyes while she formed her own hand seals, before she slammed her hands onto the ground and summoned a wall of earth to slam into the man's chin, snapping his head up violently, as he fell backwards from the hit, Sakura charged, leapt over the wall, and threw a handful of shuriken at his falling form. Chizuru and Hinata were now slipping out of their stupors and they once more formed up on Sakura, the goons were starting to lessen significantly, and it seemed the three wouldn't need to face any more, as the others had the situation handled. When the three team seven genin came together, Sakura started to cry harder, she wasn't making a noise, none of them were, but soon, they all broke down, and huddled together on the other side of the earth wall from the enemy Sakura felled.

As the last of the goons were cleared up Kakashi broke away from the fighting first, he made his way to his team to check up on them, and was heartbroken by the sight he saw. He knew they were taught over and over again what it should feel like to make their first kill in the academy, but he knew it was never that simple, he took note of the clearing and saw three bodies, he knew what it meant, and sighed in a mixture of grief and relief. He slowly walked up to his genin, and watched as they looked up at him teary eyed. He frowned, and knelt down next to them. He held out his arms as if asking if he could join them in their embrace, and, luckily, he was allowed in. Or more precisely, he was tackled by three sobbing genin.

"I know..." He muttered soothingly, "I know how hard this can be... The first kill never feels good... You will wish to never do it again... I know I did..." Kakashi explained, then he sighed deeply.

"I-" He began, his breath hitching in his throat, "I'll understand fully if you want to leave this team after this... Just... Please... Think about it before you make up your mind..." He pleaded.

The team embraced in silence as the camp fell fully into silence itself, Zabuza and Haku knowing to stay away while the team comforted eachother.

* * *

**A Week Later, Konoha, Hokage's Office**

"We went on to assist Tazuna in building the bridge in a series of D-ranks, who, might I add, has been tasked in governing the recovering Nami no Kuni, and is the interim leader of the country." Kakashi finished his report, "You will get more details while reading the completed written reports, which I had us all finish for the four D-ranks, one B-rank, and one A-rank before leaving Nami." Kakashi reported.

Hiruzen sat there, a stare leveled at the six shinobi currently in his office. He mentally sighed, before he finally replied.

"Zabuza-san, I have signaled for t&i to guide you through customs and processing for citizenship, Haku-chan, as you have not been a shinobi for any village, your integration will be done through our top therapist, Yamanaka-san will be up shortly to get you processed. Chizuru-chan, you and Kakashi-san will stay behind, while young Hinata and Sakura here can step outside and wait for us to finish speaking." Hiruzen instructed.

Soon after Hinata and Sakura stepped out, Mitarashi Anko, Morino Ibiki, and Yamanaka Inoichi stepped in to collect their respective shinobi. When all that remained in the hokage's office were Kakashi, Chizuru, and Hiruzen. The Hokage released a long sigh.

"Chizuru-chan... It's time I told you something important..." Hiruzen began.


	9. Calm Before the Maelstrom

"Chizuru-chan..." Hiruzen began hesitantly, before sighing, and continuing, "It's time I told you something important..."

Chizuru straightened up at the Hokage's demeanor, and noticed a shift in the attitude of the room. Kakashi, and Hiruzen seemed to both know what was going on, as they shared a similar look on their faces. Chizuru took note of that, and immediately began to run through every possibility as to what could be causing such confliction in the two older shinobi. _Could they know my parents? Did I do something wrong? Are Haku and Zabuza going to be killed? Am I? Jiji would never do that! Would he?_ As her mind started to delve deeper into subjects that she really didn't want to happen, she was pulled out of her mild panic and frazzled thoughts by the hokage clearing his throat.

"What do you know of the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha twelve years ago?" Hiruzen asked.

"Huh?" Chizuru asked plainly, before she processed what was asked of her, after which she thought for a moment before responding, "Well... The Kyuubi appeared in the middle of Konoha on the night of October Tenth, twelve years ago, and when the Kyuubi appeared, Konoha-nin immediately leapt into action to defend their village. When you joined the battle, you were able to back the Kyuubi out of the village, but it began to charge up an attack. After the attack was released, the yondaime entered the battle and deflected the shot away. The yondaime proceeded to kick the Kyuubi's ass, all while leading it away from Konoha, but eventually, the Kyuubi bested him, but not before the yondaime was able to fatally wound the Kyuubi or something like that..." Chizuru rambled, not quite knowing how it ends, "Anyways, the yondaime kills the Kyuubi, and the Kyuubi kills the yondaime."

"Your retelling makes me certain the education system is doing its job right, as yes, that is the story we are trying to push." Hiruzen commented, then straightened up. "However, as you might have guessed by now, it's not one hundred percent correct. Instead, it is only partially true, and now, I trust that you are ready to know the truth." He stated.

"Really?" Chizuru questioned, amazed that there was a whole hidden side to a well known event.

"Of course." Hiruzen said, "It's true the yondaime led the Kyuubi away from the village, but it's not true that they fought eachother to the death. The yondaime set about to restraining and sealing the Kyuubi into a baby who was not even a day old, and died only when the Kyuubi struck out at the child." The hokage announced.

"Really?" Chizuru asked, piecing together what was said to her.

"Yes. The yondaime died protecting the hero of the village, not just the village." Hiruzen continued, "And that hero, young Chizuru-"

"Is me?" Chizuru finished his sentence questioningly.

"You always were smarter than you let on." Hiruzen complimented.

"So... I have the Kyuubi sealed inside of me?" Chizuru asked.

"Yes... Having the Kyuubi sealed inside you is the reason why when you were younger you were ostracized, and shunned. I had hoped the villagers would heed the yondaime's last wish, and treat you like a hero, but they didn't... They'd rather spit on his image, than allow the 'Kyuubi brat' to live a normal life." Hiruzen spat out the last sentence, seemingly angry at the world.

"I... See..." Chizuru said hesitantly.

"I want to make it clear Chizuru-chan... You're not a monster for what's sealed inside you-" Hiruzen began, but was cut off by Chizuru.

"I know I'm not a monster Jiji. I didn't learn all this fuinjutsu just to throw my knowledge out the window whenever I wanted to." She joked, then a sad look crossed her face, "It's just... Why did they have to treat me so bad if yondaime-sama wanted me to be seen as a hero? Do they really think a master of fuinjutsu like him would mess up somewhere?" Chizuru asked.

"They really were in the wrong, those stupid, stupid villagers... They spat in the image of the yondaime and shunned the only thing keeping them safe from annihilation!" Hiruzen growled.

"The Kyuubi's sealed inside me, big deal! I'm gonna show this world that there's no such thing as monsters! You'd better believe it!" Chizuru exclaimed.

"I wouldn't expect any less from you." Hiruzen said while smiling.

"Wait... Why was it that only adults seemed to be mean to me on purpose?" Chizuru asked.

"You see, I created a law that forbid anyone, but you, from revealing the fact that you are the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. It didn't help, as by then the whole village knew, but it did prevent the younger generation from catching wind of it." Hiruzen explained.

"Huh." Chizuru said plainly.

"If there are no more questions, you may rejoin your teammates in the waiting room. Oh, and make sure to tell them that you aren't going to be taking any missions for another week. You need the break." The hokage said.

"Alright Jiji! See ya later!" Chizuru called back.

Hiruzen released the privacy seals, which Chizuru didn't even notice he activated, but shrugged it off as it happening when she was spiraling down a bad path in her mind. As she neared the door, it flew open and someone came bolting in.

"I'll defeat you this time for sure! And then, I'll get to take that hat old man!" The person shouted.

Chizuru stood stunned at the person's entrance and was about to make a move to protect the hokage, when suddenly they fell over. Chizuru sweat dropped at this, but was finally able to get a good look at the intruder, they were wearing a weird helmet, a blue scarf, yellow shirt with a Konoha symbol on it, and light green shorts. It seemed he was a boy, a young one at that, who had brown hair done up through a hole in the top of the helmet, and had seemed to drop a kunai when he fell. Chizuru took notice of what the boy fell over, and saw that he tripped over his scarf, but she didn't know how he could be clumsy enough to do that. She was about to move toward him when he shot to his feet again.

"Alright! Which one of you tripped me!?" He shouted while looking around angrily, but stopped when he laid his eyes on Chizuru. "It was you wasn't it!"

"What?" Chizuru asked dumbly.

"Don't try to trick me! Do you even know who I am!?" The boy shouted, which irked Chizuru.

"Now listen here you little punk! Firstly, I didn't trip you, you tripped yourself with that stupidly long scarf of yours!" Chizuru shouted, "Secondly, I don't care if you're the yondaime himself! You came in here and charged the hokage with a kunai, and that makes you an enemy!" She added.

"It's okay Chizuru-chan, this is Konohamaru, my grandson." Hiruzen announced.

"Yeah! Now put me down you flat chested hag!" Konohamaru shouted, expecting no repercussions.

Chizuru saw red, she cocked her fist back and slammed it down on Konohamaru's head, then turned, and left. The hokage's grandson was now on the floor holding his head, which sported a massive bump. The boy's babysit- I mean instructor, Ebisu had walked in right before Konohamaru insulted Chizuru, and watched in amazement as she walked away without a lashing from the hokage. After Chizuru pushed by Ebisu, she made her way into the waiting room, and motioned for her friends to get closer.

"Jiji told me to tell you that we have a week off from missions, but right now, if you need me, I'm going home to shower." She informed them.

"I should get home to tell my father about the mission..." Hinata muttered.

"I need to tell my parents about it too... Oh man, they're gonna freak out!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Wait up everyone." Kakashi called to them while approaching. "I forgot to mention that I want to see all of you at training ground three at seven in the morning in three days, take a rest for now, but training calls!" Kakashi said.

"Yes sensei!" The three chorused.

"Well, except for you Chizuru, we will be meeting there at four in the morning, not only then, but tomorrow and the next day too. Don't think I've forgotten your punishment for going behind my back in Nami." Kakashi said sweetly, a sinister smile spreading across his masked face.

"Y-yes sensei!" Chizuru exclaimed in a panicked voice.

"Good, now you're all dismissed." He said.

Chizuru and the rest of the group headed out, said their goodbyes, and went their separate ways. She was about halfway home when she noticed something was off. She checked behind her, and noticed that the boy from earlier was following her. When she turned back to see him however, he hastily, at least in his eyes, tried to hide himself with a blanket that was designed like the fence he put his back to. However, the blanket was facing the wrong way, **and** his feet were sticking out the bottom.

"What do you want Konohamaru?" Chizuru asked plainly, still a little irked by the kid's earlier remarks.

"As expected of my new boss!" Konohamaru exclaimed, dropping the sheet, "You're as sharp as they say you are!"

"They?" Chizuru asked.

"Yeah! You're the talk of the town! A clanless kunoichi made rookie of the year, shinobi all around are waiting to see what a prodigy like that can do!" The kid exclaimed.

"Really?" Chizuru questioned.

"Uh huh! You're supposed to be the best genin in all of Konoha, at least that's what Jiji said." He added.

"I-" Chizuru began, not finding the right words immediately, then, after thinking for a moment, she continued, "I doubt it. I'm nothing special kid, I just worked my ass off is all."

"So humble!" Konohamaru shouted.

"What? No. I mean it, I just worked as hard as I could to get that rookie of the year spot!" She exclaimed, then took a breath to calm herself, "What did you even want anyways?"

"I want you to train me!" Konohamaru announced.

"Really?" Chizuru asked again, to which the boy nodded. "Alright then, I need to shower and eat first, but I guess for the time being you can train with one of my bunshin."

"Okay!" Konohamaru chirped.

Chizuru quickly summoned a bunshin to take Konohamaru to her regular training grounds, before making her way home. When she arrived she set her things down next to the dining room table, and immediately grabbed new clothes before heading into the shower. Once she finished showering, she set about to making a few sandwiches. After unsealing the ingredients and making the sandwiches, she sat down to eat, pulling out the most recent fuinjutsu book she was reading. She finished her last sandwich just as she read the last lines of the book, then, not much surprising her, the book vanished, resealing itself for someone else's future use, and in its place was a test. She quickly ran through it, as this was just another theory test, and watched as it disappeared to, and in its place, this time to the surprise of Chizuru, a box appeared. It was small, it could sit on one hand comfortably, but was about as wide and long as two. There were intricate seals etched into it, and Chizuru immediately noticed that they were made by someone who was really confident in their ability. The etches, on closer inspection, were finely detailed sealing matrices in and of themselves, which made Chizuru a little nervous. She realized that this had to be a secondary test of sorts, and immediately set about to decoding the seal. She wrote on many pages of her newest notebook, and determined that the box was a jutsu storage seal, that was its primary purpose at least.

When she went back through her notes she saw that it was a jutsu storage seal that was interlaced in several interlinking even numbered, spiral-like seals. She recognized them as Uzushio in origin, a village she only learned about through the yondaime's books, and also took in that they were designed in a way that every seal was incomplete, missing one, two, hell, even up to sixteen different components each. In order to activate the box, and release the jutsu, she had to complete each seal, as well as match the chakra output of herself to the chakra laced within the seal. She threw together her highest chakra detection seal in ten seconds, and activated it on the box. Throwing another one together she detected her own chakra, and compared the results that appeared on the two scrolls. She noticed they were oddly similar, but shrugged it off as coincidence. She would only have to preform sixteen hand seals in order to shape her chakra just right, and, by her calculations, she would only have to hold it for around twenty seconds in order to complete all the seals. Steeling her resolve, she set about to unlocking the box. She finished not a moment too soon, as right when she drew the last mark, her bunshin dispelled itself, thus throwing her chakra back into its natural state. Breathing a sigh of relief, she quickly ran through the memories of Konohamaru's training session. The bunshin decided on stealth, and taught the kid two of the academy three, henge and kawarimi. It took a while of drilling, but eventually the boy got the hang of it, then the Chizuru-bunshin set out to mold his stealth skills by telling him to disappear for thirty minutes, if he's not found, he wont be tied to a post for a few hours. That didn't end in his favor, and the Chizuru-bunshin gave a few tips on how to better improve his stealth, and, after three hours, untied him then sent him away with a couple of scrolls that had written down on them training methods on improving one's stealth. When she finished with the memories, Chizuru set about unsealing the box again, and ran through the hand signs to realign her chakra.

After pumping a bit of chakra into the box, it lit up. After a moment of glowing, the box released the jutsu it was holding. A puff of smoke signaled the release, when it cleared it revealed a woman, who was now standing on top of Chizuru's table. Chizuru took in the sight of her and took mental note of what she was seeing. The woman was wearing a long green apron over a white shirt, and lilac sandals. She had finely toned muscles, and was standing with her arms crossed, a smirk marring her face. What stood out most however was her bright red hair, it was straight, seemed to go to about the mid of her back, and had a clip holding her long bangs of to the side. Chizuru was about to ask who the woman was, when suddenly, the woman back flipped off the table, landing on the other side of it from Chizuru. She then took a deep breath in, and spoke.

"Introducing the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero herself!" The woman called out, "I'm Kushina Uzumaki 'ttebane!"

Chizuru was star struck, she read about Kushina a few times in her history books, and knew for a fact that she was a powerful sealing master, and, if she were to guess, the Uzumaki hailed from the capital of fuinjutsu itself, Uzushio. Her mouth hung open for a minute while Kushina basked in the silent awe. When Chizuru finally regained control of her mouth she pumped herself up to give an equally awesome intro.

"Hn." She huffed, while crossing her arms and taking a pose much akin to how Sasuke would, then she smiled brightly, "Introducing Fuinton no Chizuru!" She exclaimed, "I'm Chizuru Ikeda 'ttebayo!"

"Oho!" Kushina exclaimed. "Well Chizuru, it seems as though you're quite skilled in fuinjutsu, by Konoha's standards that is. But now, we'll be playing on my stage. The box took all the information you put into my husband's tests and transferred the information directly into me. As of now you're a seal master, by Konoha's standards, even better than ero-sannin was the last time I checked. Ikeda though? Never heard of a family with that name... Clanless?" She asked.

"Yeah..." Chizuru said dejectedly.

"Aw cheer up kid. Here, I have an idea." Kushina said, then grabbed a scroll and some sealing ink, before setting off to work, "This seal I'm making is a specialty of mine, its an advanced, near X-Rank chakra detection seal, it can tell me what clan, if any, you hail from. You look like a Hatake, but then again, looks can be deceiving. Aaand... Done!" She exclaimed while marking the paper once more.

"Just pump some chakra in, and we'll get a look at what you're all about." Kushina instructed.

Chizuru walked up to the scroll, nervous that she was about to find out who her family was, she gulped, then breathed a deep breath, before placing her hand on the seal, and pumping in a small amount of chakra. The seal got to work immediately, decoding Chizuru's chakra signature, it noted an anomaly with the word Rinkaka, then deciphered the rest of the chakra. Two clans popped up onto the sheet, one much more prominent than the other, but there was also a note that went along with the other. The clans listed were 80% Uzumaki, and 20% Senju(Namikaze).

"Huh." Kushina said simply. "I... Huh."

"Is that odd?" Chizuru asked.

"Well... Kinda?" Kushina revealed. "The yondaime, my husband, is Namikaze, and I'm pure-blooded Uzumaki, so... I need to speak with the hokage..." Kushina announced, she was about to leave when Chizuru stopped her.

"I'm coming too." Chizuru announced.

"Well of course you are, you cute little snowball, we'll go together!" Kushina announced, she then picked up Chizuru and held her under her arm. "Off we go!"


End file.
